


Don’t Trust the Moon

by CourtneyElizaDiena



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, F/M, Love, Multi, Romance, Slow Burn, Suspense, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:22:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 36,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26464114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourtneyElizaDiena/pseuds/CourtneyElizaDiena
Summary: Cheza Tsukiko and two other ghouls named Naoto and Hiroto, escaped from a grim fate around the time of the Anteiku raid. The three friends are on the run from something. Who exactly are they running from? What is the tragic fate awaiting them? Why is Cheza growing so fond of a certain CCG investigator with stitches? The story takes place after the Anteiku raid and ties into the storyline of Tokyo Ghoul: Re. (SPOILERS! If you haven’t read the Re manga).
Relationships: Amon Koutarou/Mado Akira/Takizawa Seidou, Kaneki Ken | Sasaki Haise/Kirishima Touka, Suzuya Juuzou/Original Character(s), Suzuya Juuzou/Original Female Character(s), Uta/Yomo Renji
Comments: 10
Kudos: 13





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I have had this story posted on another fanfic website and decided to try this particular website out. I will be posting the chapters I have so far weekly. I have been on hiatus with writing, but am trying to get back into it. This story is currently incomplete.

Cheza stopped in front of a large, old abandoned house in the 20th ward. “This is the place,” she said. “This house was my home many years ago when I was a child.” Her lilac colored eyes scanned over the aged house, her gaze taking in the remnants of a lost childhood. The house had been purple and white, but the paint had faded and chipped away. The lawn was overgrown and the windows of the house were dark. “I’m sorry we had to wait for several months before we could come here,” spoke a black haired man beside her. “The CCG’s raid on the 20th ward was just too dangerous of a time to make it here. We had to lay low for a while until things settled down.” “I know, Hiroto,” Cheza replied with her lilac eyes meeting his grey ones. Hiroto refocused his gaze on Cheza’s attire. She wore a simple black tank top, dark blue jean shorts, and black combat boots. Around her neck was a black choker with a Brahma Kamala flower in the front. He then thought about his own plain clothes; a black t-shirt, blue jean pants, and a pair of black sneakers. They had had to find clothes that they could take that were not already bloodied and tattered after their escape. The choker Cheza wore was something Hiroto had bought her for her birthday with money he had pickpocketed. 

“You guys need to hurry up already and go inside instead of just standing there staring,” came a voice from behind them. Both Cheza and Hiroto turned to look back at a brunette male with brown eyes. He wore a red t-shirt, black skinny jeans, and red sneakers. He grinned boyishly at them, but that grin turned into a nervous one as he stated, “we can’t stay in the 20th ward for long, we need to be quick, get what we came for, and leave. Especially since Cheza wants to have time to look around the ward before our departure.” “Naoto is right, we need to hurry” Hiroto said as he glanced at Cheza, only to see that she had already begun walking to the front door of the house. 

Cheza knelt and tucked her long blood red hair behind her ear as she looked in the field of grass to find a faded zombie gnome statue. She lifted it and underneath was a key. “What the hell is with that thing?” Naoto exclaimed, pointing at the zombie gnome figure. Cheza smiled and let out a giggle as she explained. “It was my idea when I was a kid. There are several of these all throughout the yard. My mother and I painted them to resemble zombies and put them out here as decoration.” Cheza’s smile then faded and her expression saddened as an image of her mother’s face popped into her head. A face that was so much like her own with the same soft lilac eyes. “Come on,” she said as she quickly stood up and unlocked the door. 

Once inside, she paused to look around and bit her lip to keep her emotions in check. She had no time for reminiscing. The inside of the house was dark and covered with dust. She walked towards a book shelf, careful not to allow her eyes to fall on the books that were still in the shelf. She gently placed her foot all along the floorboard in front of the shelf, clearing the dust with her boot. When she felt what she was looking for, she got down on her knees to run her hands over the floor board until she found a loose board and tore it off. Inside the floor was a purple box shaped container. She took it out and opened it, gulping hard as she felt a wave of sadness and guilt wash over her body. Her hands trembled slightly as she lifted a mask out of the container. The mask resembled the face of a white wolf with small Brahma Kamalam flowers beautifully surrounding the eyes and thinly raining down the face like tears. It also had a small, silver full moon painted in between the brow area. Cheza sighed as she gazed lovingly at it. It was faded, but still as gorgeous as she remembered. She clutched it to her chest and stood up. “We can leave now,” she stated to her two friends and put the mask in her messenger bag. However, she noticed Naoto wasn’t in the living room. “Where did he go?” She asked Hiroto. “He went into the hallway looking at stuff,” he replied. “Ugh, that kid. I guess we need to go fetch him then.”

Both Cheza and Hiroto entered the hallway calling Naoto’s name. “I’m upstairs,” he shouted back at them. “That brat,” Cheza stated in frustration as she clutched the railing of the stairs and glared upwards. “What’s wrong?” Hiroto asked her. “He’s just curious. Also, even after knowing you for the years that we have, we still don’t know that much about you. So, therefore his curiosity is understandable.” 

“Sorry, it’s just that I didn’t want to have to see the rooms upstairs,” she answered. Her eyes softened and Hiroto saw them begin to water. “I’ll go get him, you can stay here and wait,” he said and walked up the stairs as Cheza hid her face behind her crimson hair. A few minutes later, Hiroto returned with Naoto and they left the house. After Cheza locked the door and placed the key back in its place, Naoto asked her about a second child’s room that seemed to belong to a little boy; she ignored him and walked ahead. 

As the three friends walked along the sidewalk of the street, Hiroto asked Cheza why there were no photographs displayed inside the house, to which she replied, “I don’t know, I think someone took them. There were paintings that use to be there too, but they were gone as well.” Cheza displayed such a sad and pained expression on her face, that Hiroto was worried that she would disappear for a little while again. However, she broke the sorrowful appearance and smiled at him. “Things have kind of changed since I’ve last been here,” she said. “I wonder what new stuff they may have in the art museum if we have time to visit it.” “We might have time,” he replied, returning her smile. He was glad that her mood was starting to improve a little, but he also knew she was trying to disguise her sadness so that he would not be consumed by worry for her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cheza looked around the city trying to remember where they should go from here to get to the art museum when her gaze fell on a donut shop with colorful advertisements on the front. She had always thought human food, especially sweets, looked very interesting and pretty. Although she liked the look of donuts, cupcakes use to be her favorite sweet food to admire and make with so many brilliant colors and designs. Even though she could not eat them and it made her angry, she had loved giving them away to humans with her mother. She had loved making sweets for people because not only did she enjoy the artistic part of it, it also made her feel like an actual person herself. During those moments in which she witnessed the delight and appreciation humans expressed for her gifts, she didn’t feel like a monster. 

As she continued to gaze at the bright advertisements, someone walking out of the shop with a chocolate donut in their mouth and a sack in their hand caught her attention even more so than the colors she was admiring. She could not tell if this person was male or female. No matter what gender they were, it was obvious this person was very pretty. They had white hair that almost reached their shoulders with their bangs pinned by red bobby pins. They were pale, lanky, and wearing eccentric clothing with red slippers. What really drew her gaze though, were the red stitches spiraling around their arm, traveling down their throat, and one stitch below their lip and eye. That person must have felt someone staring at them because they suddenly turned their head to stare back at her. Cheza was shocked to see such crimson eyes with dark bags under them. They cocked their head slightly and jumped on a railing, still staring at her. The person’s sudden movement made her jump a little in surprise. They just finished the donut they were eating, got another one from the sack in their hand, and stuffed it in their mouth. Cheza then quickly looked away and ushered her friends to start moving forward and away from the strange white haired human. After they were gaining some distance, she chanced a look behind her, and noticed that the person with stitches was gone. She relaxed a little and kept moving forward with Hiroto and Naoto. However, something was bothering her and causing her head to hurt. Those piercing red orbs were familiar to her.


	2. The Mask Maker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I kind of don't like this site because it won't allow me to properly split up scenes in my chapter. Thus, sorry for the awkward splits.

“HySy ArtMask Studio; so this is the place where that ghoul Uta makes masks.” Cheza stepped closer to the building to examine the sun logo design to the side of the door. “He’s supposed to be the best mask maker according to what I’ve heard,” Hiroto stated as he walked up to the door. “Let’s go in.” He then opened the door and waited for Cheza and Naoto to walk in before he entered himself.

“Oh cool, a checkered floor,” Cheza squealed out before Hiroto had even closed the door behind them. She had some weird love for black and white imagery and designs for some reason. Hiroto just shook his head and entered the space to look around. Not to his surprise, Cheza and Naoto were already grabbing masks that were displayed on walls and stands to try them on. “You two need to be more respectful and stop touching stuff.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” came a calm and gentle voice from behind a curtain at the corner of the studio. The curtain was then pushed aside to reveal a tall and handsome man with black hair that was shaved off on one side, piercings, and tattoos. Strangely, his kakugan seemed to be active. “Welcome, my name is Uta. Are you three wanting custom made masks?

Cheza took off the mask she was currently testing out, glanced at the emo looking ghoul who suddenly made a weird facial expression that was hard to read, and placed the mask back in its place. “Actually, only two of us are wanting custom made masks. I have a mask that is very precious to me that I want restored if you can do things like that. It just needs fresh new paint.” Cheza pulled out the white wolf mask from her bag and held it up so that Uta could see it. Uta’s indecipherable expression had disappeared as he walked towards her to take the mask from her hands to get a better look at the details. “It’s worn some, but it is very beautifully made and painted. Did you make it”? Uta cast his kakugan eyes from the mask to her. “No, it was made by my mother and it used to belong to her,” she replied. “And where is your talented mother now?”

“Dead.” The word left a bitter taste in her mouth. “I can restore the paint details for you,” Uta stated as he went back to examining the mask. “Thank you,” Cheza replied. She was relieved that the mask was still in such good shape. Her mom had promised to one day help her make one of her own, but of course, that day will never come. She looked at Uta, gazing at his tattoos in order to focus on something besides the distressing memories trying to pervade her thoughts. He was wearing a sleeveless black and white shirt, so she could see most of them. Despite the eye catching designs wrapping around his arms, she kept finding herself eyeing the one on his neck. It was something in a language unfamiliar to her. What does it mean?

“What are these little hook like things on the inside of the head part?” he suddenly asked her. Startled, her heart skipped a beat and she quickly shifted her lilac eyes up to his red and black ones. “Oh, those were made for tying a faux fur hood to in order to conceal hair.” He smiled slightly, his eyes still locked on hers, and said, “interesting, that would go along well with this mask.” “Um…yeah.” She looked away from him and felt her cheeks flush with heat. She was now feeling embarrassed because she was sure he had noticed that she had been staring at him. I was actually admiring the tattoos, not you.

“So I am assuming it is you two who want a custom made mask,” Uta said as he turned to address Hiroto and Naoto. They both answered yes. “Okay then, let’s get started.” Uta placed Cheza’s mask on his work table and grabbed a sketchbook and pencil. As he turned back around to the three ghouls, he asked them what their names were. “I’m Cheza, the black haired guy is Hiroto and the brunette is Naoto,” Cheza replied. “Okay then, Hiroto and Naoto just sit in these two stools here so that I can take your measurements.” They both did as they were told and Uta grabbed his materials and started measuring Naoto’s head and face first, and then jotting down the measurements in his sketchbook. As he worked, he asked a series of questions to the two.

“Do you have any allergies?”

“No.”

“Have any hobbies or things you like?”

“Not particularly.” Hiroto’s voice was distant as he answered. Naoto, on the other hand, was more responsive. “When I was younger I liked to play games with my family when they were still around and I really like animals, especially dogs. I also like to draw with Cheza.”

“Do you two have anyone special in your life such as a girlfriend or boyfriend?”

“No.”

“Are you two interested in Cheza?”

“Heck no, not in that kind of way!” Naoto exclaimed.

“And what about you Hiroto?”

“She is like a sister to me.”

“I see, so you three are very good friends right?”

Naoto grinned. “Yup, pretty much. We are all each other has now. We travel together and protect each other.”

“Hmm, that gives me an idea for your masks. I really like Cheza’s mask design and since you three seem close, I was thinking of making both of your masks similar to hers. Do you like that idea?”

“It’s fine by me,” Hiroto replied.

“It’s cool. It would make our group like a wolf pack; I like it.” Naoto was practically bouncing in his seat.

“Good, I will make your masks into a similar wolf design then.” Uta finished up their measurements and placed his sketchbook back on the table. “So do you have an address I can mail them to once I am finished?”

“No, we don’t stay in one place for too long and are planning to stay in a motel until the masks are done so I will just come by to check on the progress,” Cheza answered as she dug through her pockets to pull out a wad of money. “So how much?”

“I won’t charge you anything until they’re done.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll be back soon.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was about an hour later that the group had found a cheap motel to stay in. The room was small and had two small beds, a round table with chairs, and a small dresser drawers with a TV on top. “I’m hungry,” Naoto announced. “We haven’t eaten for a while and my stomach hurts. Even the filthy, scrawny ass owner of this motel smells good to eat. I can’t hold out for much longer.”

“Naoto, you need to be patient,” said Hiroto. He was sitting at the table and gazing out the window. “This ward is one of the more dangerous ones. We are new ghouls in other ghouls’ territory. It would not be wise to go hunting right now and we can’t take any of the residents here and raise suspicion that there are ghouls living in this motel.”

“Also…” Cheza rolled off the bed and onto her feet in front of Naoto so that she could reach out to pat his brown hair. “We don’t have masks to protect our identity while hunting. It won’t be good if our faces are ever seen by the Doves. Just hold on okay.”

“Fine then, I’m just not feeling well because my stomach is empty,” Naoto complained as he pushed away Cheza’s hand with an annoyed expression on his face. “By the way, don’t treat me like a kid with that weird patting shit.” “Aw, but you are a kid. You’re only 14.” Cheza grinned and ruffled his hair as he growled at her. He then pushed her hand away again and dodged her next attempt to pat his hair. “I’m going to the bathroom,” he said, rushing past and closing the door behind him. Cheza heard the lock click and sighed. “I wish he would stop trying to grow up so fast, he should enjoy being a kid.”

“It’s like that for most ghouls though, they have to grow up fast.” Hiroto’s voice was cold and distant. “Most ghouls aren’t as lucky as you. They weren’t able to grow up living in innocent bliss with a loving family, never having to kill humans themselves for so long before things are stripped away from them.”

Cheza narrowed her eyes at him as he said his next line. “I’m not even sure if you are capable of killing a human.” This wasn’t the first time he had berated her for her naive kindness. Although she had taken the lives of many ghouls over the years, it was only because she had to. Either they killed her or she killed them. Kill or be killed. It was easier to destroy them because they were cruel and had wanted her dead. However, humans are powerless against ghouls and it didn’t feel right to her. On the other hand, the Doves of the CCG are different because they are able to fight back with quinque and they hunt her kind, but she has never had to fight one. In fact, her mother and she had both truly cared about one. This was why it was difficult for her to allow herself or her companions to harm a human. Hiroto seemed to resent her sometimes for it and she was always angry with him for his lack of compassion for anyone else other than Naoto and herself.

“Please don’t be angry with me. I just don’t want you to die either from starvation or from a Dove because you couldn’t kill a human.” Hiroto’s tone had softened and he was looking at her with such sad eyes. He had always looked at her that way and she never could understand why. Maybe he pitied her for being so weak because being forced to kill had broken her. Or maybe he had actually cared about her from the first time they met. But why did he? The fact that he had helped keep her alive all this time had confused her, but she accepted it because she had had to survive somehow. He had worked for that sadistic creature, the one who stole the people she cherished most from her. She always wondered why he pitied her. Why did he risk his life to save her if at the same time he was so frustrated by her desire for peace?

“By the way, I saw how weirdly you were gazing at that strange human with stitches this morning.” His words broke her away from her thoughts. “That human just stood out to me with how eccentric looking they were,” she replied. “Was that all?” he asked, looking at her suspiciously. He knew there was something that was bothering her. “Well, I also felt like I’ve seen that human before some years ago maybe, I’m not sure.” She cast her eyes downward. She really did feel like she had recognized the person, but she just couldn’t quite grasp the memory of who they were to her. The more she tried, the more her head started to pound and ache. So she decided to change the subject. “Naoto has been in the bathroom for such a long time, I wonder if he’s okay. He did say he wasn’t feeling well.” She turned and walked towards the bathroom. “Should we check?”

“I guess so.” Hiroto got up from his chair and walked over next to her. Cheza knocked on the door and shouted, “Naoto, are you okay? Are you sick?” No one answered. She knocked louder this time and called his name; still, no answer. “Fuck, he couldn’t have,” Hiroto said with a voice full of frustration. He moved Cheza out of the way and turned the knob that didn’t work. It was still locked. He then backed up and swung his leg, kicking the door off its hinges and into the bathroom wall. He rushed in and Cheza followed behind him. Naoto was not there. They then looked above the wreckage of the door towards a small open window that was just big enough for Naoto’s small frame to squeeze through. “That kid went out the fucking window,” Hiroto growled. Cheza’s heart skipped a beat because Naoto was gone and through that window, she could see the setting sun. It would be nighttime soon. The 4th ward was deadly at night. Cannibalistic ghouls lived in this ward. They had to find Naoto fast.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cheza and Hiroto were running through alleyways following Naoto’s scent as the sky went dark. “We need to hurry and find him, Naoto isn’t a very good fighter,” Cheza said shakily. She was worried he would be ripped apart by the local ghouls of this ward. He was small and not use to fighting other ghouls. There was no way he stood a chance against the ghouls who resided here. Her chest felt heavy and there was a big lump in her throat as she was forcing back tears. He was like a younger brother to her and she couldn’t lose another little brother. She pushed herself forward, now running faster than Hiroto. There was a bend to the right of the current alleyway they were speeding through and as she got closer to it, the stronger the smell of blood. It was definitely Naoto’s blood. Her heart sunk and tears brimmed around her eyes as she threw herself around the bend and into an open space with a dead end. His scent mingled in with the foreign scent of other ghouls hit her full force. There were five male ghouls surrounding him. Naoto was in the middle with his greyish blue and red scorpion tail kagune swinging back and forth to keep the other ghouls from getting too close. They obviously could have easily taken him out already, but were toying with him. Two of them were koukaku, two were bikaku, and one was a rinkaku. With a more thorough look, she also noticed that Naoto had slashes across his stomach, shoulder, and left arm.

Cheza felt the rage boil up inside her as the adrenaline rushed through her veins. The heat almost unbearable, she rushed forward and jumped onto the shoulders of the rinkaku ghoul. The ghouls were so absorbed in their delight of torturing Naoto, they didn’t even notice her. Her hand sliced into the ghoul’s neck like a knife, she gripped his chin with her other, and ripped off his head. She then kicked off of his body and flung his head into the face of one of the koukaku ghouls closest to Naoto. The ghouls were stunned and Naoto took the opportunity to stab his scorpion tail into the chest of the ghoul who had gotten hit in the face. The ghoul went down and Cheza flew to Naoto’s side while effortlessly dodging the other ghouls’ kagune. She grabbed his hand, pulled him behind her, and stood with her back to the dead end wall. She took her stance and waited, watching for what the other ghouls would do.

A black and red kagune blade burst through the stomach of one of the bikaku ghouls and then sliced out of his side. The ghoul then fell to reveal Hiroto standing behind him. Cheza smiled and charged towards the last bikaku ghoul while Hiroto began a fight with the other koukaku one. The ghoul swung his green tail towards her and she dodged to the right and then to the left as it came down at her. He then swung it sideways and she jumped up to land on the tail and kick off from it. The ghoul brought his arm up to shield himself as she threw out a kick. The kick connected with his arm and she heard a cracking sound as the ghoul screamed and stepped back. She had broken his arm. The ghoul cradled his arm, glared at her as he grit his teeth, and then brought up his kagune to slice her side. She easily dodged and leapt over him, landing behind him to plunge her hand into his back and out of his chest. Blood spurted from his mouth and he fell to his knees. Cheza then lifted her leg and kicked his head off his shoulders. It was done. She looked to Hiroto to see that he had finished off his opponent as well. He nodded to her and they both went to check on Naoto.

“Are you okay?” Cheza asked. “I’m fine, these wounds should heal as long as we get something to eat,” Naoto replied. “It does hurt though.”

“You shouldn’t have run off like that kid,” Hiroto said, examining Naoto from head to toe. He looked furious, but he was angry because he cared about the kid too.

“I’m sorry, I was just really hungry and no one was going to go hunting soon.” Naoto looked down at his feet in shame.

“Naoto…” Cheza started to speak, but was interrupted when spikes came raining down on them. She wrapped her arms around Naoto and shielded him with her body as Hiroto formed his kagune into a shield like structure to help protect them from the barrage. Still, some spikes managed to slice her arms and the sides of her legs. She just bit her lip and held on. After the shower of spikes subsided, the three looked up above them to see several more ghouls on the rooftops. Much more than the amount they had just taken out.

“Well well, look what we have here,” called out one of the ghouls. “You guys just killed some of my men. I’m gonna have to kill and eat you punks in return, but I’ll especially take my time with that pretty red head. Get them!”

The three turned and ran as another round of raining kagune spikes came down on them. Hiroto kept his kagune shield up to provide some cover. They ran back the way they came and the ghouls followed them. Some from the rooftops, others jumped down below to pursue them. “We need to get to a place that is more suitable for fighting,” Hiroto yelled. “We may have no choice but to try and fight them off. Just follow me, I know a place.” They ran through alleyways, turning left, right, left, and then another left until they ran out into an opening surrounded by abandoned buildings. Some of the structures of the buildings were jutting out and looked like they were about to crumble. Cheza looked up at these broken structures and had an idea. “Hiroto, Naoto, keep running ahead of me and then stop just below that door like formation.”

“Okay.”

They did as commanded and she fell back behind them and then ran to the right to jump up on some of the rubble from the buildings. From there, she jumped and climbed up onto the jutting door formation and her friends stopped below her and looked back at their pursuers entering the clearing. Cheza braced herself, preparing to release her kagune. If she timed things just right, she should be able to wipe out a good number of these ghouls. She waited until they drew closer and were in perfect view before she let the rush of heat flow out of her lower back and spread out into four large and thick, scaled tentacles.

The tentacles flew forward at the oncoming ghouls, the scales shimmering and flowing with the colors purple, pink, red, and blue filled with glowing specks that resembled stars. It was like stardust from the galaxy forming into tentacles that sliced through the crowd of ghouls. A beautiful blur of colors mixed with torrents of blood until half the ghouls were torn to shreds, their body parts and kagune strewn throughout the clearing and onto the sides of buildings. Cheza retracted her tentacles and glared at the shocked faces of the remaining ghouls. Some were shaking in terror. “I will give you a chance to back down and run. If you choose to stay and fight, I will kill you.”

All of the surviving ghouls turned and ran except for one, the ghoul who had spoken to them and commanded his group to go after the three friends. “I’m not going anywhere girlie, I’m no weakling,” he shouted, and a kagune structure sprouted from his back. He was the ukaku ghoul who had fired the spikes at them. Before he could release his barrage though, a familiar voice called out. “Toguro, it would not be wise of you to continue your attack on them. I’m pretty sure this woman could kill you easily. Don’t throw your life away like that.”

Cheza looked for the source of that voice and saw that to her left stood the mask maker Uta on top of some fallen rubble from a building. He was composed and calm with no decipherable expression on his face. When the hell did he get here? Cheza wondered.

The ghoul Toguro looked at Uta and then back at Cheza. His face was contorted in anger, but he turned away from them and left. Cheza then jumped down from her perch and stood next to her friends. She had absorbed her kagune back into her body and was feeling a little woozy. Hiroto helped steady her when she started to sway. Not having eaten properly for a while and then expending a lot of energy through the massive release of her kagune was not good. She needed to eat something, and soon. She looked back at Uta who hadn’t moved an inch and asked him why he was here. For a split second she thought she saw an amused look flash across his face as he said, “well, that was quite a show.”


	3. Disguise

The shackles were tight around her wrists, feet, and neck. The more she struggled against her bonds, the more they rubbed her skin raw. She wasn’t able to move very far; the chains that connected her shackles to the wall were short. Her dirty, dark red hair shrouded her face like a curtain as she bowed her head in defeat. Her stomach hurt and her throat and mouth were dry. Her veins were stinging liquid. She was starving. All of a sudden she could see light beam through beyond her iron cage and a tall guy with dark hair stepped forward in it, carrying a sack of something that smelled delicious. He stepped toward her cage and unlocked the door to enter. He knelt beside her and looked at her with grey eyes full of sadness. “I’m sorry about your family, I’m sorry for this…” he paused and looked down at her shackles. “Cheza, you need to eat or you’ll die.” He opens the sack and Cheza stares down at its contents as her head starts to pound and her thoughts become clouded. All she was aware of was the sweet scent of blood. The guy, a teenager, takes out a chunk of blood soaked meat and holds it in front of her mouth. She bites into it viciously, not caring as the blood and tissue smashes into her face and pours down her chin. After hand feeding her several chunks more, the boy says to her: “Cheza, my name is Hiroto and I promise you I will get you out of here someday. Just trust me…listen to me.”

Cheza awoke in the bed next to Naoto. She looked over at him to see that he is still sleeping. She then sat up and looked over the bed to see Hiroto wrapped in blankets on the floor. There was only room for two on the bed and Hiroto had insisted that Naoto and she be the ones to sleep in it. The dream she had just had was the first time she met Hiroto. It was a while after her family had been killed and she’d been taken as a prisoner. She was never actually sure how much time had passed from her capture to him giving her food. Everything was a blur except for some moments of clarity. She had been 10 years old at the time and was a terrified and traumatized kid. She carefully maneuvered herself over Naoto and off the bed so she wouldn’t awaken him and tip toed around Hiroto. She walked over to a table with clothes that Uta had laid out for them and stripped out of his pajamas and a t-shirt. She put on a long sleeved shirt with black and white stripes and black pants. Then pulled on a pair of socks and her combat boots. Lastly, she hooked the choker Hiroto had given her around her neck. Uta was letting them stay at his place until their masks were finished. Last night, he had helped them. He had led them to his place, helped treat their wounds, let them shower to wash off the blood, allowed them to borrow some clothes, and gave them food. Some of the food was chunks of meat, but a good amount of it consisted of eyeballs and…dicks. He had literal genitalia, and was eating it. That was off-putting to her. Hiroto and she didn’t eat them. However, Naoto found it funny and tried one. Cheza left the bedroom, went down the short hallway, and entered the living room. The couch was empty and she didn’t hear him anywhere near. Uta was not there, he must be in his studio.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cheza entered HySy ArtMask Studio and saw Uta working at his station in the corner. “Hello Cheza, are you wanting to check on the progress of the masks?” he called out to her. “Uh yeah, and I just kinda didn’t want to sit around in a room all day.”

“Come sit down.” He gestured to a chair to pull up next to him. Cheza dragged the chair beside him and sat down. “I finished renewing your mask and it is in this drawer here.” He pulled out a drawer next to his table and Cheza reached out to collect her mask. “It looks great, thank you.” She smiled at him and looked over the mask in adoration. “By the way, I just wanted to say thank you for helping us last night and letting us stay with you. We couldn’t go back to the motel because Hiroto wrecked the bathroom door in our room and we obviously can’t pay for that.” “You’re welcome,” he answered, not even looking up from his design. Cheza looked over to see what he was sketching. It looked to be either Naoto’s or Hiroto’s mask because it was a design that was similar to her wolf mask. “You know, I never asked you any personal questions,” he said when he noticed her watching him. “May I ask you some things?” His voice was gentle and surprisingly nice to listen to. However, there was something off about him. She could sense it. She had started having that kind of feeling ever since she saw him watching their fight against those 4th ward ghouls last night. She just wasn’t sure what was so frightening about him. He was a dangerous ghoul, she could tell, despite his calm and laid back demeanor. “It’s fine, ask away.”

“Is Cheza the only name you go by or do you have a last name as well?”

“Yeah, I have a last name. It’s Tsukiko.”

“Interesting. Tsukiko means moon child.”

“It’s not really my last name or even a last name honestly. It’s mainly a name my mother liked to use because she said we had an ancestor by the name of Tsukiko who was a magnificently strong ghoul. Taking my ancestor’s name in my family lineage was a way of honoring her. I’m not exactly sure what she did though for them to admire her to that degree. My mom never spoke of it and everyone in the family is dead, except for me.” She stroked and twirled her long crimson hair around her fingers and hand as she explained. A nervous habit of hers.

“Yeah, I’ve heard of that name before.” Uta’s face was unreadable as he stared blankly away from his sketch for a moment. However, he collected himself from whatever was on his mind and continued to ask her questions.

“So do you have any hobbies or things that you like?”

“I like a lot of things. Music, art, moonlight, space related things, and wolves are my favorite animals. I like to read, draw, paint, and create things. I even like to bake.”

“Bake? You mean bake human food like cakes?” Uta’s eyes widened a bit as he turned to look at her. He might have been surprised, but it was hard to tell. Cheza stifled a laugh. It was strange for a ghoul to do such a thing, she knew that. He probably thinks I’m weird; but then again he could also be considered weird for his sense of style. “I used to help bake all kinds of cakes when I was younger and gave them to people as gifts. I haven’t done so in years though, so I don’t know if I can still do it. I find cake designs pretty because of the colors.”

“I see. I understand what you mean.” He turned back to his work, finished sketching, and flipped the page to a blank one. “I have decided not to include the Brahma Kamala flowers on your friends’ masks because something tells me they are specifically meaningful to you.”

“You’re right, they are. The flower is a symbol of something precious to me. By the way, may I ask you a question?” She lightly bit her lower lip; another nervous habit of hers.

“Sure.”

“What does the tattoo around your neck say?”

“It’s a Latin quote written in Greek letters that says ‘I can live neither with you, nor without you’.”

Cheza twirled her hair in her fingers as she gazed at the neck tattoo. “I like that quote. It makes me think of the situation between ghouls and humans. We can’t exactly live among them, but we also need to exist alongside them. I don’t only mean for access to them as just a food source either. I find people interesting and I like to pretend that I’m normal around them. I like the feelings they make me feel such as joy, amusement, happiness…and love. I like the stability that living in their world brings as well.” She then stared at the newly made sketch design of another mask. This mask was a much darker version of her own.

Uta stopped his work to look at her, no emotion evident on his face. “You can say that I guess. It is your interpretation and it does have merit. I understand what you are saying. I don’t feel the need to be around humans. However, I do get a bit excited when a human enters my shop to look around, buy something, or to commission a custom created mask. I also held a lot of respect for a human artist who was highly skilled in embroidery and mask-making. She happened to be my mentor and friend.”

“So you were actually friends with a human and learned from her?” Cheza was both shocked and interested to know more.

“You could say that, I respect and admire artists in general; human or ghoul.”

“Hm, what was her name? I would like to meet her and see some of her work. If your masks are this good, I can’t even imagine the quality she produced in her work.” Cheza leaned slightly toward him, anticipating an answer.

“Her name was Tsumugi Yamagata* and she is no longer living.”

She leaned back and her eyes saddened. “What happened to her?”

“She was killed by another ghoul.” His face still revealed no discernable emotion. His expression was so flat and empty. His eyes didn’t even give anything away. He didn’t seem bothered by the woman’s death at all.

He’s so strange, Cheza thought. He was a pleasant person with a gentle voice, but rarely displayed actual emotion. She also sensed something that could be described as ominous emanating from him. It was difficult to notice, but she knew it was there and she didn’t know why. Cheza was both afraid of this ghoul and fascinated by him. It was strange that someone like him would have such a deep quote that reflected the state of the world they lived in tattooed on his neck. The other tattoos she had seen on him looked symbolic as well. In fact, now that he wore a loose grey tank top, she could see part of what looked to be the sun logo of his studio tattooed on the left part of his chest. The tattoos must mean something to him. The same as the Brahma Kamala flowers on her mask meant something to her. Her thoughts then shifted back to the dark aura she sensed from him and she stated, “That 4th ward ghoul, Toguro, he backed off after you appeared. He listened to you…Why?” She bit her lower lip and twirled a strand of hair.

Uta had turned back to his work, looking over both sketches. “Oh, back in my younger days I was the leader of this ward before I stepped down to make masks and run this shop. He was a ghoul that I knew back in that day. He wasn’t very strong in the past, but it seems he has improved. I haven’t paid attention to him much really.”

His answer confirmed her feelings about him being dangerous. He was most likely a very strong ghoul. “So what do you think of these?” he asked her as he handed her his sketchbook. Cheza took it and looked over the designs. They were the same design as her wolf mask, even the hooks for faux fur placement was included. The only differences were that they did not have the Brahma Kamala flowers and were of a darker shade. “What colors have you decided to make them?”

“For Hiroto, black and for Naoto, blue-grey,” Uta answered as he extended his hand to retrieve the sketchbook. Cheza gave it back to him. “We will have to go shopping to an arts and craft store for the faux fur,” he said while placing the sketchbook on the table. He then got out of his seat and looked at her. His face still had no readable expression. “It’s time to start crafting your friends’ masks, you can watch and maybe help if you want to.”

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Juuzou Suzuya thanked the cashier for the sack of donuts as he laid his money on the table. He was feeling joyous today over their new special. He turned around, pulled out one of the donuts, and took a huge bite out of it. When he looked up, a bulky middle-aged man with slicked back dark hair and thick, fluffy eyebrows walked into the store. It was Special Class Kuroiwa. He knew what he was actually here for. Juuzou had once again skipped out on a Doctor’s appointment and physical therapy. He had come to find him in order to lecture him about it. Jeez, I obviously don’t even need the therapy or the checkup, he thought. I’m perfectly fine. Juuzou rolled his eyes and swallowed the bits of chewed donut. Kuroiwa was looking straight at him. “Hello there Special Class Kuroiwa, how are you doing today?” he asked him.

“Suzuya, we need to have a chat and I knew that this was one of the most likely places that I would find you at. Let’s sit down for a bit.” Kuroiwa gestured to one of the tables near the window to the right of them. “Okay,” Juuzou answered. He walked over to the table while shoving the rest of the donut in his mouth and sat down. Kuroiwa sat down in front of him and let out a sigh of clear frustration. He put his elbows on the table and looked Juuzou directly in his crimson eyes. “Suzuya, you ditched your appointments again.” I knew it, he came to lecture me. He didn’t reply because his mouth was still full of donut. His cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk. He just stared at the Special Class Investigator. So Kuroiwa continued-“I know you feel as if you don’t need to because you have recovered remarkably well from your injury and you have a properly fitted prosthetic leg that you were able to master walking with in no time, but it doesn’t hurt to finish up your remaining appointments. At least attend them one last time to make sure everything is truly well.” Juuzou swallowed as he thought of bringing up an idea that he had had since receiving his prosthetic. He smiled from ear to ear as he said, “I will agree to do so on one condition.”

“What is it?” Kuroiwa asked, furrowing his brows.

“I want a much better prosthetic. I want it to have a mechanism that stores my knives and that can open up for me to use them when I need to. It’s strategically perfect in fights with ghouls, they won’t see it coming. I’m also just getting tired of having to store them inside my shirt. The upgraded prosthetic would be much quicker and more efficient in battle!” Juuzou’s voice had risen in excitement as he explained and Kuroiwa was looking at him wide-eyed. “Suzuya…I don’t know if we could attain something like…”

“Make it happen,” Juuzou interrupted him, placing his hands on the table as he leaned in towards the senior investigator to stare him straight in the eyes. His face displayed a devilish grin and was inches away from Kuroiwa’s.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Kuroiwa replied as he leaned back in his chair.

Juuzou smiled, sat back down in his seat, and reached in his sack to retrieve a chocolate donut. Kuroiwa watched as he scarfed it down. His manners in general, and when eating were still horrible. “Suzuya, there is still one more thing that I need to talk to you about.” Juuzou just straightened up in his chair, mouth still full, and grunted a “go ahead.” Kuroiwa cleared his throat with a cough and said, “there is talk of possibly re-assigning you to the 13th ward in the future. How do you feel about that?”

Juuzou swallowed his donut so that he could answer. “Sounds good to me. Waaaait…isn’t that the ward that Jason was originally from?” His eyes brightened as he focused his gaze on the Special Class Investigator. “Yes, it is.”

“Perfect, I’m so excited!” Juuzou jumped in his seat. “I promise that I will do my best work there and make Special Class Shinohara proud.”

Kuroiwa’s eyes softened as he looked at the pure joy on Juuzou’s face. Juuzou Suzuya hasn’t visited Shinohara in the hospital since the night of the Anteiku raid. It was obvious that what happened to Shinohara had seriously affected him although he tried to hide it. The kid had looked up to the Special Class Investigator and blamed himself for not doing his job well enough to save his father figure.

They walked out of the donut shop together. Juuzou was still finishing up his donuts and Kuroiwa was silent next to him. A young woman and man walked passed them and Juuzou side-eyed them. The woman had red hair, but her eyes were dark. They weren’t the lilac ones that had been staring at him yesterday. He was used to people staring at him for a myriad of reasons, most of them being negative. However, the blood-red haired girl with lilac eyes didn’t seem to be staring at him in a negative way. She was just kind of gazing curiously until her dark haired friend stole her attention away from him. Juuzou tugged on the stitching below his lip. Her eyes were actually kind of familiar to him, but he couldn’t recall where he’d seen her before. He then thought of her tall, black haired friend. He definitely didn’t seem familiar, but she without a doubt did. He had met her before. He was sure of it. Oh well, he thought. Maybe I might remember later; it’s not important. Juuzou glanced at Kuroiwa. “Hey Special Class Kuroiwa, can I ask you for your opinion about something?”

“Sure Suzuya, what is it?” Kuroiwa looked down at him, raising an eyebrow.

“Should I dye my hair black?”

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It had been two weeks and their masks were finally done. They were leaving the 4th ward. They had spent those two weeks hanging out with Uta and drawing in sketchbooks that he was nice enough to give them. Cheza and Naoto watched cartoons and anime on his TV. They bought good quality faux furs in colors according to their masks. They also bought clothes, which they had to stuff in their bags along with other supplies. Uta had actually told them that they didn’t have to pay him. However, Cheza felt that they owed him for his hospitality and after initiating an argument about it that went back and forth, she shoved wads of money into his pockets and hands and told him to “just fucking take the money!” Uta didn’t seem fazed by her actions or language at all and just stood there looking at her with a flat expression. In fact, he was calm throughout the exchange about how he just didn’t need the money. Before their departure from his shop, he stopped Cheza to ask her why she loved wolves so much as a favorite animal and as a mask to put on. She answered: “They are just really beautiful and loyal animals. They are also fiercely protective of their family.”

As they walked on a sidewalk along the street, Cheza thought about her answer to him. She truly felt that she was like a wolf herself. Kind and gentle to those she loved, but vicious to those who posed a threat against her and her friends. Their group was like a small wolf pack. They were her new family and she would protect them no matter the cost. As they got closer to the tunnel that would lead them out of the 4th ward, something crossed her mind. She was thinking about all the different designs that had been in Uta’s studio and how ghouls had to wear them to conceal their identities. The masks that ghouls wore were representations of themselves. However, when she thought more deeply about it; Cheza came to the conclusion that she actually wore two masks. One to cover her face for protection when she hunted or ran into Doves, and the other to disguise the fact that she was a ghoul. That last mask she put on was when she pretended to be human. As much as she wanted to live among them, she was still a murderous ghoul. She just acted like she wasn’t a blood thirsty creature around humans. She was fake through and through. How could she really be a kind and gentle person when she has slaughtered so many people?

As soon as the three neared the tunnel, kagune spikes came spiraling towards them. Hiroto instantly shielded himself and Naoto with his kagune. Cheza released two tentacles to protect herself from the barrage while simultaneously allowing a boiling hot sensation to spew forth from her shoulder area and bombard whoever it was in the tunnel with her own kagune spikes. She heard a pained cry ring out in the tunnel and she walked inside. It was Toguro. He was holding his bloody midsection that had been completely shredded by her spikes. He looked up at her, his face full of agony. “What the fuck, you have chimera kagune?!” he grunted out; blood was pouring down his chin.

“Why did you have to attack us again?” She asked him. He gave no reply, he just glared at her. So she talked-“I don’t normally use both of my kagune in fights because it is a unique combination that might allow him to more efficiently locate us if he hears word of it from other ghouls.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?!” His face was turning beet red in anger.

Her expression darkened. “What I mean is that I can’t just let you go. I can’t allow you to live because you’ll talk and spread rumors that will get us killed. I don’t want to kill you, but I have no choice.” Her voice was cold, her gaze grew distant. She took a step towards Toguro as he backed away. He released another volley of spikes at her and she deflected them with her tentacles. Then a pure, white wing with a diamond like appearance sliced into his head. He dropped and was silent. She stared at his lifeless form for a moment and then shouted out, “It’s clear!”

Hiroto and Naoto entered the tunnel and glanced down at Toguro’s limp and bloodied body. Cheza looked at them and smiled when they lifted their eyes to her. “Let’s go. I’ve been thinking about where we should go next over the past few weeks to lay low for a while. I want us to make a home in the 13th ward. How does that sound to you guys?” Her cheery, gentle voice echoed through the tunnel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: * Tsumugi Yamagata is a character from the Tokyo Ghoul novel: Void.  
> Also, to make things clear:  
> Hiroto has a Koukaku kagune.  
> Naoto has a Bikaku kagune.  
> Cheza has the Chimera kagune combination of Rinkaku and Ukaku. (Which happen to be my favorite RC Types)


	4. Crimson Eyes and Stitches

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is set after a time skip. This chapter and further chapters take place before the start of the Tokyo Ghoul: Re manga. It also specifically takes place right after the Tokyo Ghoul one-shot: Joker (which I highly recommend reading).

The loud music pounded her eardrums and sent vibrations throughout her body. Her heart was racing, threatening to tear out of her chest. The place was dark except for the array of strobe lights. The darkness of the large room didn’t bother her though, she could see perfectly well in the dark. The sweet and tempting scents emanating from the mass of human flesh danced all around her. She side-eyed Hiroto a few feet away and he shook his head. He was dressed in a skin tight outfit in order to blend in better. A fitted black tank-top and skinny jeans. Cheza suppressed a giggle over how ridiculous she thought he looked compared to his usual attire. He hated this particular style of dress. She then went back to scanning the crowd until her eyes stopped at the bar. The bartender handed a woman with dark hair a drink and pointed to some ugly dude with dirty blonde hair and beady eyes leaning against the bar a few feet away from her. She smiled and said something that Cheza assumed to be a “thank you.” The dude walked over and sat down next to the woman to talk. After a short chat, another guy came by and bumped into the woman, causing her to turn around to look at him. The guy said something to her while the man who had bought her the drink dropped something into it. The man who bumped into her then walked off and the woman turned back to the beady-eyed creep. Cheza narrowed her eyes at the trash heap of a man. She has chosen their target for tonight. She looked over at Hiroto and nodded in the direction of the bar, fixing her eyes on the blonde man and the woman he had just drugged. After some time passes in which the woman is drinking and chatting, she finally starts to sway. The guy who bumped into her comes back. Both he and the beady-eyed guy are now helping her to her feet as she struggles to keep her eyes open. They then lead her through the crowd and towards the exit to the back alley behind the club.

Cheza and Hiroto exit through the front and walk across the street to where Naoto had been waiting in another alley. Naoto hands them coats and their masks. After donning their disguises and making sure they would be out of sight, Cheza and Hiroto made their way back across to the club. The bouncer did not even notice them. The fool was too busy flirting with some blonde wearing a tight, small dress. They climbed and leapt onto the roof of the club and looked over the back of it to see the two dudes leaning over the now unconscious woman. One of them started to undue his belt. Cheza flew down and sliced the man’s neck open. The other guy’s beady eyes widened as he opened his mouth to scream. He was cut off by a fierce kick to his face. His head snapped back violently as a loud crack reverberated. His body fell to the ground and Cheza stepped forward to examine the woman. She was untouched.

“That was quick and efficient,” Hiroto said from behind her. She turned around and smiled even though he wouldn’t be able to see it behind her mask. “I’ve gotten quite good at this.”

He brought out two heavy-duty bags from his coat and handed one of them to her. “Let’s take what we need and go.” She nodded and took the bag from him.

Cheza knelt next to one of the men and punched him in the chest to break his sternum. She then plunged her hand in, searching for his heart. She wrapped her fingers around the organ and tugged it out. She ate hearts in particular. It had taken her a long time to be able to kill a human. After they moved to the 13th ward, they had survived on the flesh of other ghouls for several months. The ghouls had attacked them and they had had to defend themselves. Well, that was her excuse anyway. After a while the ghouls in the ward left them alone. Naoto had hated the bitter tasting flesh of other ghouls. Hiroto was indifferent. Cheza was used to the taste and it didn’t bother her. However, one day when enjoying time in the park, sketching trees and animals with Naoto; Cheza had caught a whiff of blood as the wind blew passed them:

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The scent wasn’t human or ghoul. She laid her sketchbook on the bench and told Naoto to wait here, she was going to investigate the smell of blood. The scent lead her to an area concealed by a thick array of trees and bushes, out of sight from the rest of the park. That is where she saw a human male on his knees, bent over something. She walked up right behind him and could see a pool of blood on the ground surrounding him. Her heart lurched and bile threatened its way up her throat. She swallowed, reached out her hand to tap the man on the shoulder, and asked him softly, “What the hell are you doing?”

The man flinched from her touch and whirled around to face her, a large knife in his hand. That’s when she saw the source of the blood. It was a small dog, gutted and mutilated almost beyond recognition. Cheza froze as her heart started to race and her eyesight became clouded with tears. Humans could be very cruel creatures, she had always known that. Bearing witness to it was new to her though. The man was a blur in front of her as she felt some blunt object hit her in the stomach repeatedly. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and looked down to see her shirt shredded. She then cast her eyes at the man shaking in fright in front of her, holding a now bent knife. He had tried to kill her for discovering what he had done. If she had been human, she’d be dead. “What the fuck are you?!” The man screamed. He dropped the knife and banked to her right to run past her. Cheza just reacted without thinking, reaching out and grabbing him by the throat. She then hurled him into a tree. The man hit the tree hard with a loud thud and fell onto his side. She may or may not have broken his back. He opened his mouth to scream, but before sound could come out she was there in front of him, slamming her boot into the bottom half of his face. His jaw broke with a resounding crack. He shifted his eyes upward at her, fear so plainly evident in them. She was toying with him, she could have killed him quickly by breaking his neck, but she felt he deserved to suffer. Even she, a ghoul, didn’t enjoy torturing another living being. You had to be a truly terrible person to revel in the suffering of a living thing that is weaker than you. Cheza felt numb as she knelt down next to him and plucked out his fear-brimmed eyes. He couldn’t even manage to scream in pain, only muffled grunts came out. She then penetrated his stomach with her hand, but paused when she heard someone call her name. She turned to see Naoto standing there a few feet away from her. He looked shocked as he stared at her and then averted his eyes to something ahead of them. Probably the dog’s body. “I could hear the loud noise from across the park and I thought something had happened to you.” His voice was filled with worry and fear. “Kill him quickly, we need to leave before anyone else notices that something is going on over here.” Cheza nodded to him and looked back at the half-dead man. She punched him in the chest, the force broke his sternum and stopped his heart. She then ripped out that heart and stood up. “We can take this to eat.”

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After that event in the park, she had made a deal with Naoto and Hiroto. They could kill and eat humans that she picked specifically for them. It would be humans she thought deserved to die. Choosing their prey that way made her feel better about killing. It eased her guilt and they were getting rid of sadistic humans from the ward, so it was kind of like she was a vigilante protecting the innocents. Hunting in this kind of way to feed a family of three was more bearable for her. She also gave them permission to kill Doves as well when they needed to. They hunted her kind after all, so she should lose no sleep over their deaths.

Cheza finished packing the parts of meat and heart into her bag that she wanted and looked to see that Hiroto had finished up as well. “What should we do about the woman?” he asked her. She looked down at the dark-haired lady and her heart fell. They had to go back home and could not draw anyone’s attention to this alley. It was best to just leave her here until she got discovered by someone. They can’t guarantee her safety. Cheza walked to the back alley door and swung it wide open. Hiroto caught the door and held it; he knew what she wanted to do. She searched the trash around the alley until she came across a broken brick. She returned to the door and placed the brick in front of it to hold it open. “This might increase her chance of being found before morning. One of the employees will wonder why the door is wide open and investigate.” They then left the club’s back alley, rendezvoused with Naoto, and headed home.

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It was morning, the sun shined bright through the windows of the donut shop. The rays were warm on her skin as Cheza gazed at the colorful array of donuts behind the glass counter. Hiroto would probably be very annoyed with her if he knew she was human-food window shopping right now. He was at work at the moment, and she had a chance to admire the human’s craft of baked and fried goods. She had been here for ten minutes now and she could tell the cashier was getting frustrated with her for just standing, hands placed on the glass, and staring at the donuts like some kind of weirdo. “Do you have money to pay or are you just still trying to decide?” the black-haired cashier asked her, her brown eyes narrowed in annoyance. “I’m still deciding,” Cheza answered her with a smile. Right then, the doorbell rang as someone walked into the shop and a sweet scent washed over her. Cheza turned to see two people. One was very tall with long, straight black hair and the other was much shorter, the face familiar.

Cheza’s heart did a backflip in her chest. The shorter person was the same eccentric human she had seen in the 20th ward almost two years ago. They had the same crimson eyes and stitches, but their hair was cropped shorter and dyed black, with the red pins holding back their bangs in a different arrangement. The clothes were black with colorful suspenders and red slippers. The dark circles that had been under those red orbs were now less prominent. They were also still pretty with flawless, porcelain skin.

“Hello, good morning Kyoko!” the one with stitches called out to the cashier with a wide smile. A very cute smile. Cheza still couldn’t even tell by the voice if the person was a girl or a guy.

“Juuzou! Good morning,” the cashier replied. Cheza turned back to the counter to see her already picking out donuts and putting them in a sack. “The usual, right?” she asked Juuzou with a smile.

“Yup!” Juuzou walked to the counter and stood beside her as they pulled money out of their pocket to give to the cashier. Cheza’s mouth started to water a little as she smelled that sweet, intoxicatingly delicious scent that had flooded in when the door had opened. Cheza’s eyes fell on Juuzou. The scent was definitely coming from this person. The tall, dark-haired man standing behind his companion then glanced her way. When he saw that she was staring at the two of them, he quickly looked away. He seemed like a very nervous man. Juuzou took the sack from the cashier, thanked her, and turned from the counter. They were already stuffing their hand into the sack.

“Would you please buy something already.” Cheza looked back to see the cashier glaring at her. “Um…I…”

“You should get the chocolate ones with the filling. They are really good!” Cheza turned from the cashier to see the person with stitches looking expectantly at her, a smile on their face. “Um…I’ll take one of what that person suggested,” she said to the cashier. “Finally…” Kyoko sighed, rolling her eyes and grabbing the donut to put in a sack. Cheza paid for the donut and turned towards the door to leave. Juuzou and their companion were standing near the door. The crimson eyes were locked on her.

“Try it now,” Juuzou said, then grinned at her. “What?” Cheza was baffled. “You should eat it now, it’s delicious I promise!” they replied and took out the same donut to stuff in their mouth. Their cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk and Cheza almost giggled because of it. Instead, she hid a smile behind her hand. This human is kinda cute…and strange.

“If you’re not going to eat it, may I have it?” they asked her after gulping down the donut in their mouth. “Suzuya…” the long-haired man started to talk, but was interrupted by Juuzou. “What? I just don’t want good food to go to waste. She didn’t seem to be all that interested in buying a donut. More like just staring at them in a kind of weird fascination that has nothing to do with wanting to eat them.”

Cheza’s mouth hung open a little. Juuzou was spot on. She hadn’t even noticed that they had observed her before speaking to her. Cheza twirled her dark-red hair around her fingers. “Um…I am saving the donut to share with a friend I live with. I only had money for one so I was trying to choose one we would both like,” she lied out loud to Juuzou to explain away her odd actions.

Juuzou just stared into her lilac eyes. The gaze was piercing, unrelenting. Those crimson eyes seemed to be attempting to invade her mind. Juuzou cocked their head to the side a little and said, “You have to share, that’s really terrible.” They then grinned and shoved their hand into the sack for another donut. “I never share.” They smiled with pride.

Juzzou’s companion sighed. “I’m sorry that we’re basically bothering you. Suzuya…well, he doesn’t have very good social skills.”

Oh, so he is a guy, Cheza thought and let out a sigh of her own. “It’s okay, I wasn’t bothered by any of it. It seems he just might have really wanted my donut.”

“True,” Juuzou chimed in. “I don’t have enough money for more donuts later and she seemed like she didn’t actually want to eat any of them.”

He just wanted my donut, wow, how much can this skinny ass dude eat? Cheza walked passed them to the door and opened it to leave.

“What is your name?” Juuzou asked from behind her. She turned around to look directly into his eyes. His close proximity to her made her feel uncomfortable because of how good he smelled. Cheza swallowed the saliva in her mouth as she answered him. “My name is Cheza Tsukiko.”

Juuzou grinned. “My name is Juuzou Suzuya, nice to meet you.”

“Uh, nice to meet you.”

“I’m a ghoul investigator and am now a leader of my own squad. What do you do?”

Cheza froze, a cold sweat broke out across her skin, and her heart pounded against her chest. A ghoul investigator…this guy is a freaking investigator!

“I…sell my own art and I bake cakes.” She forced her voice to sound calm, but she was shaking inside.

“You bake cakes!” he exclaimed. His excited expression seemed so innocent with such a pretty face, but Cheza could sense this young man was probably a serious threat.

“Yeah, I sell them sometimes for some extra money.” Her heart would not stop racing as she watched the joy on his face shift into a mischievous look for a reason that was indecipherable.

“You are going to bake me one then.” He was demanding, not asking. Juuzou then stared at her intensely as he grinned. “I want a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, so how much will that cost?”

“Um…for you, it’s free. Since we just met.” Cheza grabbed her hair, tugged it, and then twirled it around her fingers as she bit her lower lip.

“Oh, thank you! I’ll be waiting for it!” He then walked past her and out the door. His scent was so sweet. Cheza struggled to maintain her composure. Before he left around the corner, he turned to her and said, “Where should I pick up my cake?”

“You can meet me in the park tomorrow around this time.”

Juuzou smiled, happily waved goodbye to her, and then his companion and him left. As she watched his red slippers disappear from view, a wave of relief fell over her. The serenest didn’t last for long though, because her heart then skipped a beat for a different kind of reason. What the hell is wrong with me? I am going to bake a cake free of charge for a freaking CCG Investigator. I also feel so strange…

She felt her cheeks flush with heat. She was ashamed of herself right now. She had just thought of Juuzou Suzuya as being really cute. Along with her fear of him being an Investigator, was a weird kind of nervousness tied to his adorable mannerisms and smile. She also had the same feeling of recognition that she had had in the 20th ward. This person was someone from her past. However, after talking to him, she still couldn’t think of where she might have seen him before or how she felt like she knew him. Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced through her skull as she tried to piece together some kind of recollection of this crimson-eyed person. She winced at the ache in her brain and ran her fingers through her long hair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Juuzou and his partner arrived to their board-room meeting late. He burst through the doors and plopped down in the seat at the head of the table. His tall companion sat next to him. “Good morning everyone! Sorry we’re late. Had to get breakfast and then got distracted by the prospects of free sweets!”

“Good morning Suzuya!” Three men already sitting at the table replied. “So what are we talking about today?” Suzuya asked as he reached into his pockets to pull out a cup of pudding and candy. He then lovingly laid his snacks out on the table.

An Investigator with short-cropped, blonde hair picked up a stack of papers from the table and said:

“So, even though we exterminated the Skull Masks* in this ward some time ago and predation by their group has ceased, there was an attack last night in the back alley of a club. Only two men were killed, their hearts and chunks of their body missing. Strangely, a woman was found alive and unharmed in the same alley, close to their corpses. She was confirmed not to be a ghoul and she reported that she was unconscious and didn’t witness the murders, so the fact that she was alive is very weird. The security cameras in the alley were taken out and it is not clear how. The attack could have been by some surviving members of the Skull Masks, but I doubt it. The leader was the only one who usually made such quick and efficient kills. A good possibility is that the attack was done by a lone ghoul or ghouls not affiliated with the skull masks. There was no evidence of what kind of kagune was used either so we have no lead with that.”

The blonde-investigator then handed out pictures of the crime scene to everyone at the table and sat back down. “Thank you for the information and your input Keijin Nakarai,” Juuzou stated as he unwrapped a candy. “I agree with you about this attack possibly being committed by a ghoul not affiliated with the Skull Masks. I also think that maybe this ghoul or ghouls have been in the 13th ward for a while now and we haven’t taken much notice because of our preoccupation with the Skull Masks. We should start this case with at least a look through files of documented kills over the past year or two. Throughout our conflict with the group, we did find some corpses of Skull Mask members and other ghouls in the ward. At first, of course we assumed the deaths were due to territory fights. However, these ghouls seemed to have been feasted on and in a majority of the cases, there was no trace of a kagune being used to kill them. Now we find two men who were killed without the use of a kagune. Furthermore, all those ghoul corpses and those two men were missing their hearts. That doesn’t seem like a coincidence. There must be a very strong ghoul behind all these similar killings.”

“That is an excellent analysis Suzuya,” the tall, dark-haired man next to him exclaimed. He was gazing in awe at his superior.

“Thanks, Abara. Now, pudding.” Juuzou had finished his candy during his talk.

Hanbee Abara opened the pudding, dipped a tiny spoon in it, and held it out to Juuzou. Juuzou took a bite of the pudding with an expression of pure joy and then turned his attention back to his squad members. “So I guess we should all get to work now going through those documents. Abara and Nakarai will help me with that. Mizurou, you will first go to fetch more pudding…”

“Yes, Suzuya,” an Investigator with light brown hair replied before Juuzou could finish.

Juuzou narrowed his eyes for a moment in annoyance, but then his face lit up. “After you retrieve the pudding for me, you and Mikage will go and interview the woman who was found alive at the crime scene. I also want you to examine the scene. After you are finished, report back to me.”

“We will,” Mikage, a man with short, dark hair answered. Mizurou and he then left the room. Nakarai left a few minutes after them to retrieve the documents they needed, leaving Hanbee still hand-feeding Juuzou pudding. In between spoonfuls of pudding, Juuzou spoke.

“I think I’m really…looking forward to this…investigation. A ghoul strong enough…to take down…other ghouls without…the use of their…kagune seems like it will be…a fun ghoul to track down…and fight.”

“Yeah…” was Hanbee’s reply. His face displayed a nervous look.

“Are you scared Hanbee?” Juuzou side-eyed his partner.

“Slightly,” Hanbee admitted. “This ghoul seems much stronger than the Skull Mask leader.”

“But that’s what makes this exciting! I haven’t fought a ghoul this strong in such a long time. If we’re lucky, it might even be a kakuja!”

“So will that cake that Cheza is going to make you serve as your breakfast tomorrow, instead of donuts?” Hanbee suddenly asked in order to change the subject. He was visibly uncomfortable.

“I guess so.” All of a sudden Juuzou seemed to lose his enthusiastic demeanor and Hanbee looked at him with concern in his eyes. “Is something wrong?”

Juuzou looked at him, his face was solemn. “I don’t know why, but that girl seems familiar to me. I actually saw her once before in the 20th ward almost two years ago and felt the same way then. It feels like I may have met her before, but I can’t remember when or how. I didn’t just want her to make me a cake, I wanted to be able to meet her again until I can figure out who she is and why I feel that I knew her once. There is something…strange about her…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The Skull Masks are a ghoul gang in the Tokyo Ghoul one-shot/side-story: Joker


	5. Behind Lilac Eyes

Cheza put the chocolate cake she had made for Juuzou in the icebox to keep it fresh for the morning. She then pulled out a box of red velvet cupcakes. “It looks nice,” Naoto said as she closed the fridge door. “Who’s it for?” 

“It’s for a new customer of mine that I met this morning.” Cheza smiled at him and placed the box of cupcakes on the kitchen counter. She opened her notepad to check off orders that had been fulfilled today. The cupcakes would be her last delivery. They were going to a favorite customer and neighbor of hers named Mogami. Mogami was a sweet middle-aged lady that had treated them with kindness since they had first moved into their apartment. Cheza liked Mogami and was feeling elated about visiting her. The sound of the door opening made her look up from her notepad and she leaned over the counter to get a better view of the living room door. Sure enough, Hiroto was home from work. He smiled when he saw her and walked towards the kitchen. “You done for the day as well?” he asked her.

“Almost, just have to deliver these cupcakes to Mogami next door.” Cheza then picked up the cupcakes and began to walk towards the door. “Tell her hello for me,” he said as she opened the door and closed it behind her. It was a very short walk to Mogami’s apartment door. When Cheza reached it, she knocked twice, and Mogami quickly answered. The smile on the woman’s face when she looked up at Cheza was huge and bright. Cheza returned her smile. “Hi Mogami, I brought your red velvet cupcakes and Hiroto says hello.”

“Oh, he is a sweetie, please come in for a bit,” Mogami replied as she opened the door wider and gestured Cheza inside. Cheza walked in and put the cupcake box on the living room table. Mogami closed the door behind them and ushered Cheza to sit down on the couch next to her. “Thank you for the cupcakes and for the donut you brought me this morning. You’re such a sweet heart.”

“You’re welcome.”

“How have you and your brothers been?”

“Great, how about you?”

“Well, I’ve been fine, but also worried. There were two men killed last night outside of a club by ghouls. I saw it on the news this morning. A woman was also found, but thankfully she was alive. I don’t know how, but she is lucky that’s for sure. Ghoul predation has died down in the ward recently after the CCG exterminated a growing and dangerous group of them, but now this has happened.” Mogami had a somber expression on her face that made Cheza feel guilty. She was the cause of Mogami’s current fear and worry. “I really hope the fate of being killed and devoured by a ghoul doesn’t befall you and your brothers…” Her brown eyes were brimmed with sadness as she gazed at Cheza.

“No need to worry, I can take care of myself and my brothers.” I can protect you too, from both humans and ghouls, Cheza added in her thoughts.

“They are dangerous creatures. I wouldn’t be so naïve if I were you.” Mogami’s face then darkened as she said, “I haven’t told you before, but my husband was killed by a ghoul. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it. That I don’t think about the monsters who took him from me.” 

The guilt within her grew heavier and she felt a painful tugging of her heart as she watched tears start to stream down Mogami’s face. I know we’re monsters Mogami, I know I’m a killer…

“Sorry…I’m just scared Cheza.” She then started to sob, her shoulders shaking. Cheza didn’t know what else to do but wrap her arms around her human friend in what she hoped was a comforting hug, gently stroking her dark, grey-streaked hair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The kagune tore through her side. She screamed in agony as she fell. She had no time to stay on the ground though, she had to get her feet back under her and dodge the next blow. She twirled in the air, landed, and then clutched her side. The blood was warm underneath her hand. She had been dodging and trying to fight back now for what seemed like hours. She was exhausted and terrified. Why was he making a kid like her fight a much stronger adult? 

“Use your kagune!” the sadistic Devil shouted from behind her. He was watching her struggle and smiling throughout it all; the fucking bastard. Cheza grit her teeth and leapt towards her attacker. She swung her leg out for a kick, but was blocked by the sturdy koukaku kagune, which deflected her backwards. She fell hard onto her back and rolled out of the way as the ghoul tried to stab her. She then managed to get back up on her feet and keep moving. Her enhanced speed was the only reason he hadn’t been able to land a lethal blow. The kagune slicing her side was the only wound she had sustained so far. However, her stamina was draining fast and she was getting slower. She hadn’t used her kagune since they first formed when she was desperate to defend her brother against the Devil. She couldn’t seem to figure out how to release them, something was holding her back. She might die this time, but it would probably be best for her to die anyway. There was nothing for her anymore. She was alone…

“Do you want to die the same way your family did!?” the Devil asked her, his voice dripped with malice and amusement. Anger set a flame in her chest and she turned her attention towards the source of her misery. She rushed him, but he was faster. He caught her by the throat and flung her back into the ring. “I’m not your opponent, you better figure out how to win or you’ll die.” He smiled sadistically at her as her legs wobbled after getting up. She didn’t want to fight anymore. She hated it, but at the same time, her heart burned for revenge. She couldn’t allow herself to die just yet. She had to make the Devil bastard pay. The koukaku ghoul charged her and she stood her ground. It was now or never, she would release her kagune or die on the spot. She felt a hot, tingling sensation in her lower back. As the ghoul drew closer, she finally let go and felt the familiar release snake out from within her body, forming into two scaled tentacles. She mentally imagined them flowing forward and felt them move in sync with those very thoughts. The ghoul brought his kagune up to shield himself from the attack at the last second. Her rinkaku tentacles smashed through it and into the ghoul’s body. She raised him into the air, blood falling like rain, and hammered him into the ground. She then retracted her kagune from him and stabbed him in the head to make sure he would die. While the adrenaline was slowing its course through her veins, she stared at the corpse. Numbness consumed her at first, but then realization hit and tears tumbled down her cheeks. Fire and guilt melted her heart and acid was making its way up her throat. Cheza swallowed and let out a strangled cry. She then dropped down on her knees and lowered her head as she sobbed, her body trembling violently. This was the first time she had ever killed a person. “Good girl, Cheza,” she heard the Devil say. He was now standing right beside her. “You weren’t able to release both kagune types like you did before in our fight, but this was a good start. You will get stronger with more battles and training.” 

Yeah, and once I’m strong enough, I’ll fucking kill you! She thought while lifting her head to look at him. Fury seethed in her eyes as the tears ran dry and he chuckled. “Now…” he started to say, then smiled as he looked away from her, towards the lifeless body. “Unless you want to starve to death, eat his heart…his flesh.”

Cheza woke up to find that her cheeks and pillow were wet. She had been crying profusely in her sleep. She was also breathing quite hard and her heart was racing uncontrollably. It was just another nightmare from her past. She had them on and off every other night, disturbing her sleep. She even found herself having them while wide awake at times when something would trigger certain feelings and memories. They were usually vivid and she would have to take a few minutes to compose herself, to force her mind back to reality. She sat up, tossed the covers off of her, and threw her legs over the edge of the bed. She looked down to study her Pokémon pajamas. She eyed the line-art and colors of Pikachu, Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasoar. After a few minutes, her breathing and heart rate slowed down to normal and she was better able to connect her mind with her surroundings. She then got up and got dressed.

She went to the kitchen to find Hiroto awake and brewing coffee. “You’re up pretty early,” she said to him. “Yeah, your crying woke me up. Are you okay?” He looked at her with grey eyes full of concern.

“Just the usual nightmares. Nothing to worry about.” She walked over to him and he immediately embraced her in a hug. She buried her face in the crook of his shoulder as he gently stroked her hair. He knew about her flashbacks all too well and they stayed in each other’s arms until the coffee was done. He poured her and himself a cup and they both sat down at the table. “I hope I didn’t wake Naoto up too,” she stated after a couple minutes of sipping their coffee in silence. 

“Don’t worry about it; that kid could sleep through someone bulldozing this building to the ground.” Hiroto then smiled at her and she returned it. “Do you have any orders to fulfill today?”

“Just a few and I might also book an art show at this small gallery for next week as well,” she answered him, intentionally leaving out the fact that one of her customers was a Dove. She knew she should tell him, but she couldn’t bring herself to do so. It would be better to let him know because now that Juuzou knew her, they would have to be more cautious with their hunting. However, another thing that crossed her mind was that although she should just deliver his cake today and leave, she wanted to talk to him more. She needed to know who he was.

“An art show sounds great. If it’s on a time that I’m off from work, I’ll go to support you!” Hiroto’s ecstatic voice pulled her from her thoughts. She stared at him in amusement, he rarely ever sounded so happy. “Thanks,” she replied with a smile. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was around seven in the morning when Cheza arrived in the park. She sat down on a bench and placed Juuzou’s chocolate cake box next to her. She was feeling slightly nauseous and her stomach was in knots for some reason. She bit her lower lip and twirled her hair around her fingers as she scanned the park for Juuzou. After a few minutes passed, she finally spotted him. He was surveying the park as well, tugging on his lower lip. She was about to open her mouth to call out his name when he saw her. Her voice caught in her throat as he rapidly waved in her direction with a huge smile on his face. He then joyously bounded to her and held out his hands when he stopped in front of her. “Cake please!” He excitedly stated. Cheza felt the corner of her mouth tug up into a smile. She had been trying to hold it back since he came bouncing her way, but she couldn’t anymore. She picked up the box, handed it to him, and then got up to leave. 

“Wait! Where are you going? Your just gonna leave like that?” He then plopped down on the bench and opened the lid of the box. Cheza looked down at him in confusion. He actually wants me to stay?

“Are you just gonna stand there staring at me or are you gonna sit back down?” Juuzou looked up at her with what looked like a smirk on his face. “I kind of wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Sure,” she answered and sat back down next to him on the bench. He still smelled really good, his scent was the sweetest of any human she had ever come across. She glanced at him and saw him pull a chunk from the cake and deposit it into his mouth. “Sorry I didn’t bring you anything to eat that with.”

“Oh, its fine. I can eat it like this. I do most of the time anyways.” He grinned with his mouth full and continued to talk. “So…what I want to talk to you about is this: Have we met before?”

Cheza was taken aback by his question. When she didn’t respond after a few minutes, he then said, “You seem familiar to me and I can’t remember where I’ve seen you before. That’s why I asked.”

“I think I did see you once almost two years ago in the 20th ward outside a donut shop. You had white hair then.”

“I know, I saw you then as well, but I don’t mean from the time in the 20th ward. It’s a lot farther back than that.” He then narrowed his eyes at her in frustration. The look didn’t last long though when she said, “I feel like I’ve met you before a long time ago too, but I can’t recall it.”

“That’s weird.” He took another bite of his cake as he looked off into the distance. He actually seemed bothered by something. He currently displayed the most serious expression she had seen him make since she first met him. However, it quickly faded as he continued eating his cake. After he had most of it devoured, he turned his attention back to her. He seemed to be studying her face. A jolt of shock then ran threw her as he suddenly stated, “You’ve been crying.” He cocked his head slightly to the side as he stared at her. He was a very keen and observant human. Her eyes must still be somewhat puffy and red from earlier this morning. “What were you crying about?”

“Nothing. I just have nightmares in which I sometimes cry.” She shifted her eyes from his and stared into space. Things were getting uncomfortable.

“I have nightmares sometimes too. They’re less frequent now, but still there.” His voice was full of melancholy, rather than that uplifting enthusiastic tone he seemed to always talk in. 

“What are they about?” she asked softly.

He didn’t answer her. Instead, he finished eating the last of his cake. “That was delicious! You now have yourself a new soon to be regular customer.” His expression was full of joy again as he smiled at her. The pensive sadness from moments ago had completely disappeared. 

“Thanks,” she answered. “I’ll be looking forward to baking more cakes for you, but you’ll have to pay for them.”

“Oh, I will! They will definitely be worth the money too. So how do I contact you for more cake?” 

“Um, with the number on my business card.” Cheza shoved her hand into her pocket and pulled out a purple and pink card to hand to him. Juuzou took the card and then happily hopped up from the bench. “It’s time for me to go to work now, but I’m excited about this current case that my squad and I got assigned!”

“What case are you working on?”

“We are trying to track down the ghoul perpetrators who killed two men outside a club last night. I presume that they must be pretty strong and have probably been in the ward for a while now. We are currently looking into documents of past murders and ghoul corpses that have been found. I noticed a pattern and we are searching for cases that fit that pattern. One of the ghouls doesn’t use a kagune to kill most of the time and likes to eat hearts in particular. This is going to be so much fun! I can’t wait to fight it!”

Cheza’s heart started to pound in her chest. He and his squad were officially on a hunt for her and her friends. Juuzou smiled at her and then turned to leave. Before he walked off too far, he turned back around to say, “Oh, by the way Cheza, I’m going to try and figure out who you are. I’ll let you know when I find out if we have met before.”

Cheza watched him as he left the park, her heart still hammering. The butterflies she had been feeling fluttering in her stomach earlier were now gone, replaced by a gut wrenching panic. Shit! She thought. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Juuzou entered the CCG building. He was thinking about Cheza and of course, the delicious cake. He already wanted more cake, but he also wanted to talk to her again. He still couldn’t recall anything about meeting her. He felt as if he had met her when he was a kid, but something was blocking him from the memory. Her eyes were especially familiar to him. Specifically, the anguish behind her lilac eyes that he had noticed when they were talking on the park bench. He strained his brain, but nothing came to him. He was starting to get angry that he couldn’t remember and he hated that it actually bothered him. He hated now that anything had more of an emotional impact on him than in the past. Ever since Shinohara got hurt because of him and was in a sleep that he might never wake from, Juuzou started changing little by little. The fight with the One-Eyed Owl during the Anteiku raid in which he was unable to save Shinohara, had awoken feelings he’d never had before; feelings he thought would never surface in his mind and heart. These emotions were so foreign to him, confusing, frustrating, and annoying. He hated it so much. Only one feeling made any sense to him. That feeling was that he had to do the best he could at his job so that when Shinohara finally woke up, he’d be a competent enough partner for him to fight alongside with again. He reached the door to the meeting room, opened it, and greeted his squad with a wide smile. 

Many hours later, half the day to be exact, they had finally compiled all the documentations that fit the profile of their target and arranged them in order of when the kills occurred. “So, it seems that the first human murdered was a young man in the park,” said Keijin. “Strangely, there was also the mutilated body of a small dog nearby where the man was found. He only had his heart missing and was killed in daylight. The rest of the human murders occurred during the night from then and more than just the heart was missing from the bodies. None of them were killed with the use of a kagune. The ghoul corpses that may have been slain by our target were discovered months before the first human victim was found. There was evidence of no kagune use for most of the cases, but in a few of them, the traces discovered came from a rinkaku and a koukaku type. The ghoul slayings lead me to believe that we may be dealing with more than one ghoul, but the human victims tell me there is just one ghoul.” Keijin then pursed his lips in thought. “What do you think Suzuya?”

“I think we are looking for more than one ghoul.” Juuzou put the rest of his candy bar down on the table as he quickly looked over the documents again, trying to uncover another pattern among the cases. After some time passed, he found something intriguing. Aha, I got it!

He picked up the remaining chocolate and scarfed it down. His squad stared at him, patiently waiting for him to finish. After he was done, Juuzou grinned and said:

“I am definitely sure we are dealing with a group of ghouls. Both the humans and ghouls were killed in a similar way with their hearts missing. The ghouls that had been killed before the first person had more than just their hearts devoured and it is strange that this first person only had a heart missing and was murdered during the day. The following human deaths occurred at night with more parts missing from them. This leads me to the conclusion that this group of ghouls that we are targeting may have been killing and feasting exclusively on other ghouls for months. This reason could have been out of convenience because they were new comers in the 13th ward ghouls’ territory and had to defend themselves while simultaneously avoiding detection by investigators. However, something happened that made one of them finally kill a human in broad daylight. Only the heart was taken for food because it would be easier to hide and the ghoul had to get out of the park quickly before people started to investigate what had happened. This ghoul that killed the first human victim was the one who doesn’t use their kagune. The human murders committed afterwards were also carried out by this ghoul alone. Therefore, it’s obvious to me that the non-kagune user is the group’s leader because they can kill more efficiently than the others in the group. It was kind of the same for the Skull Masks’ leader if you remember. They were the best at killing.” Juuzou then let out a deep breath and sat back in his seat. His squad nodded for him to continue.

“After the first human victim, the ghoul deaths also continued. However, no kagune traces were found on the following ghoul corpses. This means that the non-kagune user is either killing ghouls to eat by themselves or the group is just solely relying on their leader to retrieve their food. After looking over these documents again, I noticed another similarity among the human murders besides the heart being taken. These people could be considered as unwanted by society due to their vicious crimes. The first human victim was obviously torturing and killing an animal. When you look into his past, he has had a history of doing this since he was a kid. The other humans that were slain were murderers, rapists, and pedophiles. It is also obvious from our interview with the woman found in the club’s back alley and other club goers that the two men who were killed recently were planning to rape that woman. This could mean that the ghouls are systematically choosing to kill people that they deem not worthy of living.”

“I hadn’t noticed that Suzuya, your right,” said Hanbee. He was looking at Juuzou with admiration lighting up his face. “It seems weird to me that these ghouls have a kind of moral compass that leads to picking certain individuals as prey. I’ve never come across ghouls like that. It’s out of the ordinary compared to cases I’ve learned about and have worked.”

“I haven’t come across vigilante type ghouls either,” Suzuya said as he shifted his red eyes to Hanbee. “Despite me thinking that these people are better off dead, murder is murder. We can’t allow ghouls to run around killing anyone, even if they are despicable people.”

“Your right,” Hanbee replied. “These particular ghouls still make me wonder why exactly that they chose these kinds of people though. Is it because…do ghouls really feel guilt over having to kill and eat people to survive?”

Juuzou didn’t answer his question. His gaze fell to the documents on the table. A fleeting thought about the person who had raised him came crashing into him. Had his mama ever…?

“I agree with your conclusions as well Suzuya,” Mizurou stated, breaking Juuzou out of his stupor. “However, we still don’t even know the appearance these ghouls take. We haven’t seen or heard of what kind of masks they wear.” 

“True, but I’m confident we’ll discover their identities soon enough.” Juuzou’s smile returned to his face as he unwrapped another candy bar. “I bet that the ghouls were in that club when they were looking for their prey. All we need to do is attain the video feed of that night from the security cameras inside the club.”


	6. Conflicting Emotions

“Cheza look, they do have some wolves here after all!” Naoto exclaimed, pointing to their right at a large enclosed space. There was a pack of five wolves behind the glass as they both approached to peer in. Aw, they’re beautiful! Cheza thought as she gazed at the red, brown, grey, and black furred wolves in complete admiration. She then smiled as one came up to the glass to look at her. Cheza knelt and placed her hand on the glass. The wolf’s golden eyes were locked onto hers as it drew closer to where her hand was. It was a lot bigger than she thought it would be and so fluffy! The wolf sniffed her hand and she felt a peacefulness wash over her. However, she also felt a deep sadness. These wolves were in captivity instead of free out in the wild like they should be. She could relate, being once kept from the outside world within a cage that only allowed an occasional audience to observe her. Although she was free now, she would probably forever have to run and fight for the rest of her life in order to maintain that freedom. 

It had taken her a while to pull herself away from the amazing animals, but after she managed to do so, she and Naoto headed towards the area where the giraffes were held. As they neared the place, she could already see the spotted, long-necked animals and a joyous rush filled her heart. Gosh, they are super cute!

When they got closer to the animals, a familiar, sweet scent filled her nostrils. It made her mouth water a little. She knew who this scent belonged to. When she eventually spotted the particular person who emanated that delicious smell, her heart skipped a beat. Juuzou was sitting in front of the giraffes, drawing in a sketchbook. What an odd place to find a Dove.

Apparently, she had been staring quite intensely because all of a sudden Naoto burst out, “What are you staring at like that? It’s obviously not the giraffes.” Startled, she quickly tore her eyes away from the Investigator. Naoto was smirking at her, his eyes twinkling. “You were gawking at that weird person with the stitches weren’t you?”

“Um..no.” Cheza flicked her eyes from Naoto to the ground. He was such a nosy kid who seemed to notice every detail about a person; him meeting Juuzou would not be a good thing.

“Why were you looking at a human like that?” He asked, peering closer at her.

“Like what?”

“Like you were entranced or something. You know that person don’t you?”

“Well, he’s a new customer of mine.”

“The person is a he?” Naoto looked truly baffled.

“Yeah, he’s a dude. He’s pretty, I know.”

“Smells good too.”

“Don’t even think about it. We are not going to eat him.”

“Chill-why don’t you introduce me!?” He grinned at her. Why did he look like he was planning something?

Cheza narrowed her eyes at her scruffy haired friend. “The answer is no. I think we should go home now.” She then grabbed Naoto’s hand to lead him away, but before she could even take a few steps, she heard Juuzou’s voice call out her name. Shit. She stopped and turned around to see him on his feet, smiling broadly, and waving at her.

Naoto smirked at her. “Looks like your weirdo customer friend noticed you.”

Cheza glared at Naoto and then let out a sigh as she walked towards the Investigator. “Hi, Juuzou.” She smiled brightly at him. 

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” he replied and then shifted his gaze to Naoto. “Who’s that with you?” 

“This is Naoto, he’s my friend, but is more like an annoying little brother.”

“Hi there, nice to meet you,” Naoto said as he stepped up to Juuzou.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Juuzou Suzuya. I love Cheza’s cakes!”

“Wow, what’s with those stitches!? They’re pretty cool!” Naoto exclaimed, pointing at the ones on Juuzou’s neck. 

“It’s a type of body modification that I learned from a friend some years ago.” Juuzou tugged on the stitching on his arm with a proud expression. 

“That’s awesome, I see that you draw too.” Naoto gestured to the sketch book Juuzou held. “Cheza and I draw too, except she’s a lot better at it than me. In fact, she booked an art show at a gallery for next Saturday!”

Cheza could feel her cheeks flush in embarrassment. “I’m not that great, really,” she muttered. 

“Oh don’t be so modest. You’re amazing!” Naoto grinned at her.

“Where is this art show and at what time is it?” Juuzou suddenly asked. Cheza was surprised. Why would he want to come to her art show? 

“It’s at the Sakura Gallery at 5 pm,” She answered.

“Okay, I’ll be there then.” Juuzou had the biggest smile on his face and it made Cheza’s heart flutter in her chest. What’s wrong with me…?

“So can we look at your drawings Juuzou?” Naoto asked, reaching out his hand for the sketchbook. “Sure,” Juuzou replied and allowed Naoto to take it. The three of them then sat down on a bench together, Cheza in the middle of the two. She noticed that Juuzou didn’t sit too close to her, he kept a reasonable distance. Together, she and Naoto flipped through pages of giraffes, cats, dogs, various sweet foods, some landscapes-but mostly giraffes. Wow, he really loves giraffes. Cheza smiled to herself. 

“These are good,” she said to Juuzou with a smile and handed his sketchbook back to him. Juuzou grinned as he put the sketchbook in his lap. He then focused his crimson eyes on hers. “By the way, I’m gonna need more cake.”

“Okay, same kind as before or?”

“Sure, bring it here at noon.” He happily hopped up onto his feet and stared at her for a few minutes. His gaze piercing into hers. “Make sure its triple chocolate this time though.” He then quickly left them alone on the bench. That was strange…

“That human is a real weirdo, but he smells nice,” Naoto stated. “Are you sure we can’t eat him?” He gave her a sly smile.

“No, Naoto. You know our arrangement about prey.” She glared at the kid’s now disappointed face.

“Oh, I see…you like him don’t you?” He asked, grinning.

“Why…what the hell do you mean by that exactly!?” Cheza narrowed her eyes, anger rising in her chest.

“So defensive,” Naoto chuckled. “It wouldn’t be a surprise to me if you have a crush on him. You like humans in general. I also know you like eccentric people. Another obvious crush was that mask maker ghoul, Uta. He was freaky looking too. That seems to be your type.” 

Cheza clenched her teeth in frustration as her cheeks flushed pink. She knew Naoto was just teasing her for fun, but the accusation of liking the human made her angry for some reason. “Naoto, you need to shut up,” she growled. He just laughed at her threat. However, upon seeing a pained expression suddenly flash across her face, he stopped. His eyes softened from guilt as he asked her, “I’m sorry, what’s wrong?”

“I’m…afraid you might be right. You see…there is some kind of connection between Juuzou and my past. I may have met him once and the more I am around him, the more familiar he feels to me. At the same time though, there’s this terrible ache in my head that keeps growing worse.” Her eyes were down casted as she explained. Another thing she didn’t feel like telling him was that she was both terrified of him being a CCG Investigator and the fact that every human she grew to care about ended up dying; usually because of her. She bit her lower lip to hold back the overwhelming emotions threatening their way up from her heart and into her throat. She didn’t want to like Juuzou, she didn’t want to befriend him-but at the same time, she needed to dissipate the fog around her memories concerning who he had been to her in the past. However, she would be walking a tight rope if she continued to talk to him. He couldn’t discover that the ghouls he was targeting were her and her family. She didn’t want to have to kill him if he figured out the kind of creature that she truly was. Despite trying to keep her emotions at bay, she felt hot tears well in her eyes and spill out down her cheeks. Why am I feeling this way? Why am I so weak?

She then felt someone patting her head and looked up to see that it was Naoto. He displayed a serious and concerned look. The kid looked a few years older now. “I bet it has something to do with him. You only get this distressed whenever it does.” Cheza just nodded her head in answer. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cheza put the last finishing touches on their Lego castle before she heard her mom call her brother and her for dinner. “Come on Riku! Time to go eat.” Riku placed his teddy bear inside the castle and happily followed her down the stairs. Their parents were at the dinner table with everyone’s plates already prepared. They both sat down next to each other and started to eat. It was almost like they were just a normal family having an evening meal together. However, the food that Cheza and her mother ate were different from what her father and brother consumed on their plates. Cheza’s mouth watered as she popped the meat balls into her mouth, savoring their juicy taste. Their parents talked with them about school, upcoming projects, and what they wanted to be when they grew up. Again, it was almost like they were just an ordinary family. After some time of laughing and talking, the doorbell rang. Her mother’s face went stone cold and Cheza could smell the scent of an unfamiliar ghoul nearby. “Wait here, I’ll go answer it,” her mother quickly said as Dad was just getting up from the table. Mom gave him a somber look that he seemed to decipher well because he immediately sat back down. Mom then left them to answer the door.

Whoever the ghoul was, mom and he spoke in low volume. Cheza was the only one capable of hearing their conversation. The man sounded charming at first when he greeted her mother as if they were old friends. However, Cheza could sense that there was a sinister underlying tone in his voice. After the short conversation was over, he bid her farewell and left. When mom came back into the kitchen she looked shaken to the core, a dark shadow spread over her face. Cheza was only ten, but she knew from the way that man had spoken to her mother and how distraught she now appeared in the doorway, that he was a threat. Mom then looked to dad, her face contorting in anguish as she said, “It was ‘him,’ the one who led the old ghoul group that I used to be a part of before I got pregnant with Cheza. He acted polite, but I could tell that he was extremely angry about how I have chosen to live out the rest of my life and most importantly, who I am living it with.”

Mom then stared fearfully at both Cheza and Riku, tears brimming in her eyes. “We need to start packing to leave the 20th ward. We aren’t safe here anymore.”

Cheza woke feeling numb and outside herself. She laid in bed for a few more minutes before sitting up. There were no tears this time, just a feeling of emptiness deep down in the pit of her chest. Riku…her brother was gone and she still hadn’t avenged her family’s death. She wasn’t strong enough yet and she now had a new family to protect, to keep out of the Devil’s grasp. 

This morning, she was the first to get up and brew coffee. Hiroto walked into the kitchen and stared at her for a moment before saying, “Good morning.” He smiled and she answered him with a morning greeting of her own. She then poured them each a cup and they sat down together at the table. “You’ve had another dream about the past, haven’t you? I can tell.”

“Yeah, it was when he first entered my life. I didn’t know then what would happen. I knew he was most likely a threat given the way my mother reacted to his visit, but it never crossed my mind that the following few days after that would be the last time we would all be together.” The numbness melted with the words and allowed a sickening ache to pulse in her chest. It was suddenly hard to swallow and tears streaked down her cheeks. She then felt arms immediately wrap around her and she let what she had been holding back go, allowing the warm embrace to engulf her while she sobbed. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At thirty minutes until noon, Cheza was walking to the zoo, carrying Juuzou’s cake. However, she didn’t make it very far before she noticed a crowd that had gathered around just outside of an ally. Curiosity got the best of her and she pushed through the tightly packed group of people to investigate what they were amassing for. As she forced herself to the front, she saw security tape and several people standing in the alley surveying the crime scene. Two of those people she recognized, Juuzou and his tall, long-haired partner that was with him when they first met at the donut shop. It seemed as if Juuzou would not be able to meet her at the zoo after all. Cheza let out a deep breath and sniffed the air. She definitely smelled Juuzou’s sweet scent, some unfamiliar ones from the surrounding humans, and that of a male ghoul. Her heart beat then quickened when she smelled the stench of death mixed in with the scent of someone she knew. 

She took a step closer and tried to see over the few who were kneeling over the corpse and blocking her view of it. She was almost about to fall over the security tape when a man in a black suit yelled at her, “hey, you need to back up there young lady!” He put his hand out to force her back, but that hand was immediately grabbed by one with stitches.

“It’s fine, she’s supposed to deliver something to me today. She probably wanted to come hand it to me.” Juuzou smiled broadly at the man, who suddenly appeared very nervous. “Okay, Suzuya,” he said while he slowly backed away from the investigator.

“You brought me my cake, thank you!” Juuzou held out his hands over the tape and stared straight into her eyes. Cheza was a little stunned for a bit over how casual he was about his order in such a morbid scene. “Money first,” she replied. He reached in his pockets, pulled out a wad of money, and counted out the amount that she had charged him. They then did a trade-off of money and cake. 

Juuzou grinned and turned back to the crime scene while opening the box. To Cheza’s shock, he began eating. “You are really going to eat that at a time like this!?” she asked, baffled at his strange actions. 

“A time like what? I need the energy,” he replied, shifting around to face her. Cheza just stared at him for a few minutes before saying, “It’s kind of weird to be eating not far from a dead body.” 

Juuzou just shrugged his shoulders and stuffed more cake into his mouth. Cheza winced as he did so. There was something seriously wrong with this guy. She knew that normal humans wouldn’t have the stomach to eat near a fresh corpse. “Who was the person who was killed? It was done by a ghoul wasn’t it?” she asked him, she was growing more heartbreakingly anxious by the moment. She knew who the dead human scent came from, but she was hoping that she was wrong. She needed him to tell her before she left. 

“We looked at her driver’s license in her wallet, her name was Ai Mogami. She was definitely murdered by a ghoul, but I don’t think it was the ghouls we are currently trying to track down. The way in which she was killed was sloppy and with a kagune.”

Cheza’s heart sank and she bit her lower lip to keep her hurt from spilling over. Mogami, her neighbor, friend, and customer, was the victim in the alley. She choked back tears as a rush of anger boiled in her blood, “Juuzou, please find the ghoul that did this and kill him.” Her voice was cold and piercing, a kind of malice filled tone that others rarely heard come out of her mouth. Juuzou actually looked taken by surprise. He stared at her with his mouth slightly agape. He then closed it and tugged on the stitching below his lower lip as he uncomfortably shifted his gaze from her. After a moment of silence between them, he then said, “Did you know her?”

“Yeah, she was my neighbor and a beloved customer.” Cheza’s voice softened with those words. She then quickly turned away from Juuzou, hiding her now moist eyes with her hands as she began to push her way back out of the crowd. Once she was free, she didn’t bother to look back and started running towards home. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was 6:00 pm when Cheza heard the apartment door open, announcing Hiroto’s arrival back home from work. She laid sprawled out on her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. She had canceled the rest of her orders for that day, apologizing to her customers and telling them that she needed at least this day to grieve for the death of a friend. She picked up on Hiroto’s scent outside of her door before his knock came. “Cheza, are you okay?” he asked, “May I come in?”

“I’m okay, you can enter.” She rolled over onto her side as he opened the door and walked in. His expression was solemn as he looked at her. He had most likely found out what happened to Mogami, and since he knew her so well, he probably had already guessed what she would do in retaliation for her death. Of course, she had just been lying in bed crying all day until night fell. She was then planning to leave their home and hunt down the ghoul who killed their neighbor. “You know what happened today don’t you?” she asked, raising her gaze to his, a deep coldness apparent within her eyes. 

“Yes, I know. I also know what you’re thinking and I’m going to beg you not to do it. You might draw special attention to us if you keep on recklessly killing and eating other ghouls behind mine and Naoto’s backs.”

“So you know what I’ve been doing this entire time, yet you haven’t tried to stop me?” Cheza sat up and threw her legs over the side of the bed, staring intently at Hiroto. 

“I probably couldn’t stop you if I tried. Why do you keep on doing these things? I know it’s not out of hunger.”

“Because…I’m still too weak to protect either of you. I need to get a lot stronger if I am ever going to be able to kill him. We never know when he might find us, and when he does, I need to be able to fight on par with him. I need to become stronger than him if we are ever going to survive and be able to truly live freely without the fear of him coming for us. I don’t want to lose you and Naoto.” Her voice cracked at the last statement; she bit her lip, and choked back the tears that were threatening to make an appearance.

“You don’t have to take on such a burden all by yourself. You can rely on me to help you take him down, just like you relied on me to help you escape from him. The choices that you have continued to make since we moved here are going to cause us nothing but trouble.” Hiroto’s face had a stern look and his eyes kept flicking from her to the drawer that contained her mask. “I’m worried about you,” he said as he rested his gaze back onto her, his eyes seemingly trying to hold back a tremendous sadness.

Cheza got up from the bed and walked over to the drawer that her mask resided in. She retrieved it and clutched it to her chest. “I’m sorry Hiroto, but I need to get stronger for you and Naoto. I hate being weak and unable to save anyone. Although you did help Naoto and me escape, there were many other ghouls who didn’t make it out alive. We were unable to save every prisoner he had. However, if I had been more powerful at that time, we maybe could have rescued everyone instead of just ourselves. I promise that I’m not going around and killing just any ghoul I feel like killing, I choose them in the same way that I choose our human prey.” Cheza didn’t dare look up at him as she spoke. She felt guilty over doing such rash things without telling them. She felt shame over not informing Hiroto about Juuzou and his squad’s investigation over their kills. However, she felt compelled to increase her strength for Hiroto’s and Naoto’s sake and she didn’t want any harm to befall on Juuzou. A warm hand then cupped her cheek and startled her out of her thoughts. She tilted her head up to peer into sad, grey eyes. 

“Do what you think you need to do I guess, I know there’s no changing your mind.” With that said, Hiroto retracted his hand from her cheek and left the room. A few hours later, Cheza took leave of their apartment, donned her disguise, and tracked down the scent of the ghoul who had murdered her human friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I was kind of lazy with writing this chapter; I’m sorry xD  
> I’ve been feeling tired and distracted, so my head wasn’t really all that clear when I was writing this. I’ll eventually come back to it and edit it though. This chapter is kind of just a set up for much more things to unfold. 
> 
> That was an old note, but it basically still applies >_<


	7. Suspicions

He was used to Big Madam sometimes hosting visitors in their home, but he had only seen this man come by once before. He was tall with long black hair drawn up into a ponytail and his dark soulless eyes gazed down at him with a sadistically amused twinkle in them. Even though he was only a child, he was exceptionally good at reading others. Their minds were easily opened books to him. The man before him emitted an ominous aura that was stronger than any other ghoul he had ever met. He also seemed more vicious and anger prone than his mama. “Rei, come here and meet the Devil and his servant,” his mama chuckled and gestured for him to stand in front of the man. The man towered over him, making him feel slightly uncomfortable. “Nice, to meet you,” Rei said. The Devil man just grinned maliciously at him. “Interesting pet you have, I’ve seen some of his performances. He is quite agile for a human,” the man said, ignoring Rei and directly addressing his mama. “Oh yes! He’s my most prized possession who has brought quite a lot of money in for me. He is going to become a Scrapper soon that I will call Juuzou! You should come by for his future performances then as well!”

“I’ll be sure to do that,” the Devil man replied with no discernable expression on his face. “Anyways, I have brought her here for you as requested. This one is also a very prized pet of mine so take good care of her for the hours that you have her. If she is harmed by you or your human, I will kill both you and the boy.”

“Of course, there will be nothing for you to worry about,” Big Madam answered shakily. Rei was surprised to hear actual fear in his mama’s voice. “Rei, mama has decided to give you a playmate as a reward for being such a good boy. She’s a ghoul, but is around the same age as you. Be nice to her.”

After that was said, the Devil man lifted a chain he had been holding at his side and tugged on it. A girl that did look to be around his age immediately emerged from behind the dark and looming man. The first thing he noticed about her was her strikingly bright, red hair and when she looked up at him, her lilac colored eyes. The girl was utterly emotionless. However, when he reached out his hand, smiling, and said to her in the gentlest voice he could muster, “hi, I’m Rei,” the girl smiled at him. 

Juuzou woke up feeling confused. He was used to having dreams of his past, even though they had lessened over time. They typically resembled nightmares, but this one had been different. Was it really a dream from his past or just something that his mind had concocted because lately he had been trying to understand why Cheza felt familiar to him? He sat up in bed, pondering over it. The answer was most likely that his brain had pieced together something that would appease his racing, unending thoughts. The little girl in his dream had looked like a younger Cheza. However, he didn’t recall ever being allowed to have a friend when he lived with his mama. The dream then, was of course, just a dream. It had to be. 

Juuzou hopped out of bed, yawning and stretching. He groggily got dressed and pinned his bangs in their usual arrangement. He then looked at the clock and frowned. He had gotten up earlier than usual. Oh well, more time to enjoy breakfast.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today, Juuzou and his squad quickly went to work looking through the security footage from inside the club in which two men were murdered outside of. It had taken them some time to receive the videos, but at least now they could possibly find some clues as to the identities of the ghouls. Which, of course, is boring work so Juuzou assigned the bulk of the video watching to his underlings. 

He hunched over in his seat, elbows on the desk, munching on a candy bar as he surveyed the dark scene on the screen of the computer. The only source of light was the myriad of blinking colors. Juuzou frowned, annoyed at the flashing lights and the drunk people dancing about in the club. After thirty minutes of boredom, two people in the video caught his attention. Juuzou leaned in more towards the screen as he unwrapped another candy and stuck it in his mouth. The two people were standing a distance from each other in the crowd of moving bodies and seemed to be scanning the place, rather than dancing. Juuzou swallowed his candy, narrowed his eyes, and tugged on the stitching in his lower lip as he noticed that one of the now suspicious looking people had bright, red hair. Cheza has that kind of red hair…

As hard as he tried, Juuzou couldn’t really see their faces; they were good at keeping their identities hidden in the shadows. He frowned in annoyance. The only particular detail he could clearly see was the red hair because it stood out in the darkness and the occasional flickering streaks of light. 

“Found something, haven’t you Suzuya?” a soft voice sounded next to him. Juuzou turned his head to see Hanbee sitting closer to him and peering over at his screen.

“Yeah, these two people look suspicious. They aren’t dancing and seem to be looking for something in the crowd.” Juuzou pointed out the two and as he did, he noticed the red-head now look towards the other person and then nod in a specific direction. “Hmm, it seems my suspicions may be right.” He shifted his eyes towards the direction of the exit out back and soon saw two men half-carrying a woman. He lifted his finger and pointed at the three figures. “They are most likely the ones that were found in the back alley.” Juuzou then brought his eyes back to the two suspicious individuals and saw them begin to leave out the front. “It seems those two people might be the ghouls since they left almost immediately as those three did.”

“I noticed that one of them had red hair and that they are both tall. Cheza, the woman you met at the donut shop is tall with striking red hair,” Hanbee said. His long dark hair swept over Juuzou’s shoulder as he leaned in to the screen for a closer look.

Juuzou quickly lifted his gaze to his partner and then flicked away the taller man’s hair from his shoulder, causing Hanbee to back away some from his squad leader. The subordinate knew he had probably annoyed Juuzou with his sudden close proximity. He also noted that his superior had an unusual expression on his face.

“You’re right about that Hanbee, I had been thinking the same thing,” Juuzou stated while tugging at the stitching below his lower lip. He seemed like he was beginning to drift off in thought, but then shifted his actions to grabbing and unwrapping a candy bar. He always had a pile of snacks and candy next to him or in his pockets. Hanbee felt a smile tug at his lips as he thought about how his squad leader was such a strong, competent, and impressive Investigator, yet he was also adorable in both appearance and child-like antics. 

“Although, just because one of the suspicious individuals had red hair, doesn’t mean it was Cheza. Anyone can have red hair,” Hanbee said. He thought it was important not to narrow their investigation to Cheza as the only possible suspect, but he was also worried about Juuzou. If he hadn’t imagined it, that unusual display on his face a few minutes ago looked like he was troubled. He was obviously curious about the girl because of her familiarity to him and because she was super nice to him; treating him like a regular person. Despite Juuzou’s talents, there were quite a number of Investigators that still looked down on him. They rarely ever treated him with kindness. Juuzou did have a tendency for violent outbursts and lacked social etiquette, but that was more prominent in the past and he was always nice to those who were kind to him. Hanbee frowned slightly as he thought about how unfairly the CCG still treated his superior; how they only were interested in using him as a weapon…

Juuzou, with chocolate still stuffed in his mouth, cocked an eyebrow at Hanbee’s suddenly depressed demeanor. “What’s wrong with you?”

Hanbee snapped out of his melancholic mood as soon as he heard Juuzou’s voice. “Oh well…um…I was thinking that it would be strange if Cheza was a ghoul because of how upset she got at the crime scene yesterday of Ai Mogami, who was killed by a ghoul. The look on her face was pure anguish and she ran away obviously crying. If she is the ghoul we are looking for, why would she care that much about a human?”

Juuzou just stared blankly at his partner and then swallowed the last chunk of his chocolate bar. “I don’t really think it would be all that unusual for a ghoul to be upset over another ghoul killing their human.”

Hanbee’s eyes slightly widened in shock at what Juuzou said, but then he remembered that Juuzou had been raised by ghouls so his thinking of course, would be different from the average Investigator. It also sounded like he was referring to the situation as a ghoul being saddened by the loss of a possession. 

“Also, I’m suspicious of her not just because one of the people in the video-feed had red hair,” Juuzou started to say as he stared off into space. “I feel like I may have met her when we were kids. The thing is, when I was a child, the only people I ever knew were ghouls.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cheza lay curled up in a ball under the blankets. She still didn’t feel like getting up. Last night, she had seriously frightened herself. After killing and consuming enemy ghouls in this ward for nearly two years, she had finally taken notice to the something changing inside of her. She was not the same as she used to be. I guess it truly is in a ghoul’s nature to be violent and bloodthirsty. I don’t think I can ever go back to pretending to live as a human and do no harm like in my childhood years.

Warm tears leaked out onto her pillow and she clumsily wiped her now moistened cheeks. If I manage to kill the Devil, then what else is there for me after that? I do care about Hiroto and Naoto, but I don’t know how much longer we will be able to keep up this façade of human normalcy before we’re found out for what we really are. Ghouls more commonly either die from starvation or are killed by the Doves and other ghouls. There is no living happily and fading from this world peacefully. Our lives will all end in those three ways. There will never be a way for ghouls to live alongside humans without bloodshed. I’ve always been a fool for hoping that someday we could all live together. Just because my family lived that way, doesn’t mean the majority of people ever will. 

Cheza then sat up and wrapped her arms around her legs, placing her chin on her knees. She let a numbness wash over her as she stared blankly at the wall across from her. “I still really do like humans though,” she said softly as an image of a smiling young boy with white hair and crimson eyes reaching out his hand to her flashed across her field of vision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is shorter than usual because it’s part of a much longer chapter that is taking me a while to finish writing and editing, so I decided to split it in half and post this.
> 
> Old note above, but anyways, I'm needing to re-read my stuff so that I remember what I was doing.


	8. Masterpiece Memory

Cheza bit her lower lip and twined a strand of her crimson hair around her finger as she stood watching people pour into the gallery. Today was the day of her small art show and she was as nervous as she could possibly be. She felt a pat on her head and turned to see Naoto standing next to her. He had a grin on his face as he gave her a thumbs up and said, “don’t worry, everything will be fine, I’m sure of it.”

Cheza smiled and nodded at the younger ghoul. She then slowly made her way to the front of the small crowd. She walked up the steps of the risen platform in the front of the large open space and turned to address the people who had gathered. Before she began to speak, she saw Hiroto enter through the front door and wave at her with a small smile on his face. She felt her anxiousness begin to melt away and stood a bit straighter.

“Welcome to my show,” she started to say, surveying the crowd. “It has taken me almost two years to compile art works that I felt would be good enough for an exposition such as this. All of these paintings and drawings hold special meaning to me and I hope you will enjoy them. Thank you for coming.” 

Cheza then gave a bow and exited off the platform while people clapped. As she walked through the crowd, smiling at people who greeted her, she was struggling to hide the disappointment threatening to show on her face. She hadn’t caught Juuzou’s scent yet or seen him in almost a week. He hadn’t called for any new orders of cake. She thought he would come to her art show like he said he would when they ran into each other at the zoo, but he wasn’t here. Maybe it was for the best. It would be better if he stayed away from her; that way, neither he nor her and her friends have to die. 

Still, she could feel her heart sink as she threw her arms around Hiroto in a hug that he immediately returned. “Thanks for coming,” she said to him, burying her face into his shoulder as she felt her mask of happiness fade away.

“I couldn’t miss it,” he replied. 

Cheza then broke the hug and avoided eye contact as she turned away from him, grabbing his hand to lead him to the closest wall where some of her paintings hung. “These first few here, you actually haven’t seen because I’d been hiding them from you. They are my favorites.”

They stopped in front of a painting of a pack of wolves. There were three at the bottom of the painting howling at the full moon above. One had white fur, the other had black, and the last had grey. Up in the sky within the full moon were three more wolves. They were portraits painted to resemble ghosts. A white wolf, a dark brown one next to it, and in the middle of the two, a smaller lighter brown-furred wolf. Hiroto didn’t have to ask Cheza what the painting represented. He already knew; it was her family and herself. 

“This is probably my top favorite one,” they heard Naoto say from behind them. The younger ghoul then put his arms around the pair’s shoulders as he leaned in for a closer view. “Yup, definitely my fave.”

Cheza let a small smile escape her lips as she gazed at the family portrait she had created. Painting it had brought her some comfort, but it still made her sad to look at it. 

She shifted her eyes from the painting and turned around to ruffle Naoto’s hair. “How about looking at the next ones now.” He looked up at her and grinned. Both Naoto and Hiroto then made their way to the next painting on the wall while Cheza paused for a moment to settle her sorrowful emotions. Once she felt a little better, she joined them beside the next painted scene.

It was a strangely beautiful painting of a burning café. Dead bodies littered the melting, snow filled ground all around the building. It was morbid, yet oddly captivating due to the colors dancing in the raging flames. Hiroto knew what this one was all about too. 

Cheza smiled as she looked at her two friends and all the people gathered in the room. She had wanted something like this ever since she was a child. Suddenly, she caught a familiar, sweet scent wafting through the gallery. Her heart began to hammer inside her chest as she realized who had just arrived. Turning so that she could view the entryway to the gallery, she immediately saw him. Of course, he wasn’t all that hard to spot since he stood out more than normal humans anyway. She also noticed that he had his tall, dark-haired partner with him. 

Some of the people in the room turned to stare at the Investigator with stitches, who was swishing his head back and forth and standing on the tip of his toes to see above the crowd. Finally, he turned to face her direction and spotted her. His mouth stretched into a grin as he waved at her, then started towards her, his partner following closely behind.

Cheza was a little taken aback by his arrival. She just stood still as he came to her and realized too late, that with Hiroto next to her, this situation might turn out bad. 

“Hey Cheza! Sorry I’m late. I got lost and had to call Hanbee to show me where this place was,” Juuzou said, indicating the Dove behind him. “Hope it’s okay that he came too.”

“It’s fine,” Cheza replied with a smile. So his partner’s name is Hanbee, she thought. Better watch out for him as well. 

“Juuzou, you came!” Naoto shouted out from behind her and she flinched. Why did he acknowledge him with Hiroto around?

“Oh, hi there Naoto,” Juuzou answered. “I didn’t want to miss it. I’ve been really curious about Cheza’s art stuff.” 

Cheza’s heart then skipped a beat as Juuzou leaned in close to her. Staring keenly up into her eyes, his face now just inches from her own. 

“Partly because I’ve been interested in finding out just what kind of person she is through it,” he said in a mischievous tone. 

Cheza felt a shiver run down her spine at his words. Is he now suspicious of me?

Juuzou then leaned back away from her and quickly spun around to point at her wolf pack painting. “I’m guessing you really like wolves?” he asked, a light playful grin returning to his face. 

“Um, yeah. They’re my favorite animal.” Cheza didn’t understand this weird human. He seemed to act randomly and childish sometimes, but she felt like he was also constantly observing things. He was obviously a lot more clever and dangerous than he appeared.

“The painting is really pretty. Wolves are neat animals.” His smile was genuine, but Cheza still felt on edge. Something was different with him; she just wasn’t sure what it was exactly. 

“Yeah, thanks,” she managed to say. Her heart pounded uncontrollably and she was having some trouble calming herself. However, she felt a warm reassuring hand touch her shoulder. It steadied her nerves somewhat. She side-eyed Hiroto as he stepped forward. 

“Who is this friend of yours?” Hiroto asked, gesturing to Juuzou.

“This is Juuzou Suzuya and his partner Hanbee. Juuzou is a customer of mine,” Cheza replied. 

“Nice to meet you,” Juuzou interjected, stepping up to Hiroto and looking him straight in the eyes. “And you are?”

“My name is Hiroto, a close friend of Cheza’s,” Hiroto answered. His voice wasn’t particularly friendly, but not hostile either. Still, Cheza could tell that he was most likely angry right now. She had been seeing and talking to a Dove without notifying him after all; he had every right to be furious with her. 

“Your friend Cheza is very talented. Baking cakes and making art. I wonder what else she’s particularly good at.” Juuzou’s lips spread into a sly smile as he said it. Hiroto narrowed his eyes at the short human. He could tell that the Dove was up to something. 

“Um…how about I show you guys the rest of my art now,” said Cheza, intentionally interrupting their obvious standoff. 

“Sure.” Juuzou tore his eyes away from Hiroto and fixed them on Cheza. “Lead the way.”

She led Juuzou and Hanbee to the next painting, which was of the burning café and corpses lying in the snow. Juuzou stood, staring flatly at the scene for a moment, but then suddenly, his bright crimson eyes grew somber; a fleeting display of sadness on his face. Hanbee cast a concerned look at his partner that Cheza also took notice of.

“What are you thinking?” she asked Juuzou, tilting her head to get a better view of his face.

He didn’t turn to look at her, he just kept staring straight ahead as he answered, “it reminds me of the Owl Suppression Operation that took place around two years ago.”

“Oh, you were an Investigator at the time of the Anteiku raid I’m guessing?”

“I was a part of the operation and I lost my leg fighting one of the one-eyed owls.”

Cheza’s eyes widened in shock over learning that there had been more than one one-eyed owl and over the fact that Juuzou had fought in the raid. When they had first escaped from their imprisonment, she and her friends had fled immediately to the 20th ward, only to be stopped in their tracks after discovering what was going on there. She hadn’t really been that far away from him then, just beyond the district line of that ward.

Juuzou then shifted to face her, his eyes straining to conceal something behind them. “My partner at that time, Special Class Shinohara was also severely injured by the second one-eyed owl and is currently in a coma at the hospital.”

A strong ache filled her chest. She could tell he was seriously affected by his former partner’s circumstance, but was trying to hide it. Something in his expression told her that even though this Shinohara had been in a coma for nearly two years, Juuzou still had hope that he’d wake up someday. However, she didn’t think it was very likely that he would, based on how pained Hanbee’s face appeared as he looked at his superior. The tall Investigator obviously knew something she didn’t and that Juuzou was probably in denial of. 

“I’m sorry,” Cheza said, her tone conveying how heartbroken she felt for him. Hiroto would probably be even more annoyed with her now that she was showing feelings for the Investigator. Normally, she wouldn’t care what happened to a Dove, but because Juuzou seemed to care about Shinohara, she was incredibly sad for him. She now hoped despite the grim odds, that the Special Class Investigator would wake up. 

Juuzou raised an eyebrow at her, surprised by the intensity of the empathy in her tone; the sorrow mirrored in her lilac eyes. He couldn’t help but gaze in wonder of why she would care about his feelings.

Cheza felt heat flushing her cheeks. She was bothered by his curious stare, so she glanced down at his legs and asked, “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but which leg did you lose?”

Her face then burned even redder, her eyes widening in shock as he grabbed her hand and pulled her down almost to her knees. He is a lot stronger than he looks!

Now kneeling slightly himself, he placed her hand onto the calf of his right leg. The leg felt hard and what seemed to be skin, although smooth, it was obvious to her that it was artificial. 

“This is the prosthetic one,” he simply stated, looking up into her eyes. 

“Oh, it seems to be very well made,” she said, flicking her eyes to the leg that she was touching and then back to his face. He held no discernable expression and still hadn’t let go of the hand that he was lightly pressing against his calf. Heart now pounding harder, she was still a little stunned by his unexpected action and wasn’t sure what she should do. His hand on top of hers was warm against her skin and sent strangely pleasant tingles down her spine. However, knots also began to form in her stomach as a sense of danger came over her. Well, this is confusing, she thought. 

“Yup, very well made,” he said, his lips pulling up into a grin. “I had the CCG make some special modifications to it as well that I would be happy to show to you.”

He then let go of her hand and she immediately stood up. Although she reacted quickly to being released, she was surprised to find that she felt slightly disappointed at the break of contact. 

He stood up straight as well and after a specific movement with his right leg, the prosthetic snapped open at the knee, revealing a collection of knives stashed inside. 

Cheza tensed at the sight, a cold sweat breaking out across her skin. The people closest to them gasped and screamed. 

“Suzuya! Hanbee shouted. “You probably shouldn’t do that in a place like this!” The younger Investigator looked nervous as he stepped up next to Juuzou.

Juuzou just ignored him and looked at the people in the room now gaping at him in shock and terror. “It’s fine people,” he said with a smile. “I’m a ghoul investigator and these knives are quinques for fighting ghouls. There’s nothing to worry about.”

He then gestured to Cheza; “I was just showing my friend here because she was curious about my prosthetic.”

Juuzou shifted his gaze to her as the people in the gallery started to calm down a little after Hanbee also confirmed that they were with the CCG. 

“So what do you think of the modification?” he asked her, his crimson eyes gleaming with mischief. 

“I…it’s…pretty cool,” she shakily replied. Cheza was struggling to maintain her composure. Does he suspect something? She thought as she stared at him, waiting for his next move.

She was relieved when he snapped the opening of his prosthetic leg back into place and then beamed at her. “I’m glad you think so, I think it’s pretty cool too. Really comes in handy when fighting. It makes for a good surprise attack.”

“I can see why,” Cheza replied. He’s just being weird it seems…

“So will you continue to show us around?” he asked.

“Of course,” she answered with a smile. She was happy for now that nothing bad had happened.

After a few more hours had passed of Cheza showing her friends her artwork and then taking the time to meet with the other people in the room, she got up on the platform once again and thanked everyone for coming to her show.

As people gradually left the gallery, she noticed that Juuzou wasn’t. He was in the far corner of the room gazing at one of her drawings, his partner patiently waiting next to him. 

She immediately went to meet him to see which artwork it was that he seemed to be so fixated on. When she got close to him and looked up at the drawing, a jolt ran through her and her cheeks flushed with heat. Oops…

The drawing was done in a mixture of charcoal and graphite. The image was of a young white-haired boy reaching out his hand to someone-the viewer. However, although you could see the impressions of eyes, a nose, and a smiling mouth; the exact details of the face were blurred. He wore a simple shirt and shorts. A light seemed to be emitting around the boy while he stood in darkness. 

“Why did you draw this?” Juuzou asked her when he noticed her standing next to him.

“It was an image that suddenly came to me when I was feeling down the other day. I quickly worked on this drawing right after.” Cheza was nervous again; biting her lower lip and wrapping her crimson hair around her fingers. She drew the image exactly as it had presented itself to her and although the face was a bit blurry, the boy had looked like a younger Juuzou. Things were now awkward. 

She risked a side-glance at Juuzou and to her surprise, he smiled sweetly at her.

“It’s a masterpiece, I really like it,” he stated, eyes twinkling. 

Cheza blushed a brighter shade of pink, said a quick thank you, and shifted her eyes back to the drawing. Thank god he didn’t think it was weird.

“You know, I haven’t ordered any cakes from you in a while,” said Juuzou.

Cheza looked back at him sheepishly, still embarrassed from his particular interest in the drawing that resembled him. “True,” she replied. “Do you want to order one now?”

“Yup, but this time I would like a strawberry cake!”

“Okay, I’ll start making it tomorrow then!” she answered, now beaming at the Dove with stitches. Her nervousness was starting to slowly subside.

“I have one other request though as well,” Juuzou stated, an impish grin forming on his face. 

“What is it?” Cheza asked, slightly titling her head to the side in confusion. What else could he want?

“I want to come over to your place and watch you make it,” he declared, his crimson eyes gazing intently into her lilac ones. He seemed to be gauging her reaction. 

Cheza swallowed the lump amassing in her throat and took in a deep breath, exhaling slowly to calm herself. “Why do you want to do that?”

“I’m just curious to see how you make your cakes so delicious!” 

Juuzou then leaned in closer to her, his eyes appearing almost puppy-dog like. “Please, can I come to your place tomorrow morning?”

“I guess it would be okay.” Cheza sighed, a blush once again coloring her cheeks. It might seem like I’m trying to hide something if I refuse such an innocent request. Also, he looked really adorable with that look he just gave me…

“Great then! I’ll see you at around nine tomorrow morning. What is your address?”

“Um, I’ll write it down on some paper for you.” Cheza gestured for him to follow her to a small table where some notepads lay. She tore a piece of paper out of one of them, wrote down her address, and handed it to Juuzou who had the biggest smile on his face. “See you tomorrow!” he stated cheerfully, and then he and Hanbee exited the gallery.

Cheza bit her lower lip, staring as the doors closed behind the two Doves. She needed to hide some things at home and go human-food grocery shopping tonight. Hiroto is not going to be happy about this.

The gallery was now empty and sure enough, Hiroto was right there standing next to her within seconds. His face was stern as he looked at her and stated, “what the hell are you thinking? Juuzou Suzuya-I have heard about this Dove. He’s dangerous and clever.” Hiroto then frowned as he gazed into Cheza’s widening eyes. Guilt and shame were evident within them.

“Why didn’t you tell me about him?” he asked her. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Suzuya, we have work tomorrow. Why did you tell Cheza you were coming over to watch her bake your cake?” Hanbee asked, staring down at his superior. 

They were walking home side by side until Juuzou whirled around and stepped in front of Hanbee, stopping him on the spot. Hanbee raised a questioning eyebrow as Juuzou grinned at him.

“I’m technically working tomorrow.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m investigating Cheza and her friends. While I’m there, I will be observing them in their home and looking for any clues that might allude to them being ghouls.” Juuzou then paused, his smile growing mischievous. “Honestly, I came here today to observe them as well. Hiroto didn’t like me at all, I could tell. He gave me a vicious glare when I grabbed Cheza and she seemed really nervous over my quinque knives.”

“Well to be fair, everyone in the gallery was shocked by your actions and any guy randomly grabbing a girl like that in front of a guy friend would probably make them angry.” Hanbee sighed and then cocked his head slightly to the side as he studied Juuzou. The Investigator with stitches still appeared confident about his assumptions.

“Trust me Hanbee, now that I’ve attended her art show today; I’m even surer that she could possibly be the ghoul we are looking for. Didn’t you find it strange when we found the half-eaten corpse of the ghoul that murdered Ai Mogami a few days ago? After examining the kagune secretions and confirming it to be that very ghoul, we also noted that he had a missing heart and that no kagune was used to kill him. It was the ghoul we are targeting who ate him.”

“If that’s the case, then doesn’t that mean Cheza would have killed him out of revenge? It’s still strange to me that a ghoul would avenge a human.” A puzzled look crossed Hanbee’s face and his brows knitted together in thought.

“It really isn’t though,” Juuzou replied flatly. “I am sure that Cheza is a ghoul.”

“Why are you so confident that she is? Does it have something to do with knowing her from your childhood like you said the day we were watching the video-feeds?”

Juuzou didn’t answer him. He was suddenly crestfallen. He turned away from his subordinate, his eyes downcast as he started walking again in the direction of their home. Hanbee didn’t press him for more information, just quietly followed behind him. 

Juuzou was having a hard time understanding these new feelings he’d been experiencing lately. He couldn’t fathom why he was so bothered by the possibility of knowing Cheza during childhood, but forgetting about her all this time. The image of the blurry-faced, white-haired boy in the drawing abruptly entered his mind. That wide smile and extended hand offering a light in the darkness for the red-haired girl. Perhaps, he thought, that dream had been real after all.


	9. A Good Pretender

Cheza paced nervously in the living room, biting her lower lip and twirling her hair all around her fingers. It was almost time for Juuzou’s arrival. Her stomach was in knots and her heart was beating rapidly in her chest. She was hoping that everything would go okay and nothing bad would happen. She glanced at Hiroto sitting on the couch drinking coffee, casting her a look of disapproval. He was irritated with her for not informing him about the Dove becoming a customer of hers and slowly, possibly even a friend based on how he saw them interact with each other at her art show. 

Last night, she had told him everything about how she met Juuzou, their interactions up till now, and how they both felt that they had once known each other a long time ago. The last part was a bit confusing to explain to him, but surprisingly, he seemed to understand. His demeanor had actually softened after she told him how although she recognized Juuzou, she couldn’t recall how or why he felt familiar to her. Hiroto’s reaction to her vague memory of a Dove puzzled her, but she decided not to dwell on it. She didn’t think it mattered too much as long as he had forgiven her and promised not to do anything to the Investigator. However, Hiroto choosing to do nothing about him was just him being smart. If the Dove was killed, it would put Juuzou’s squad on edge and they may become suspicious of his new found acquaintances. He would leave Juuzou alone for now, unless the stitched Investigator were to find out what they were; then, Hiroto would not hesitate to kill him. Cheza frowned at the thought. She didn’t want the weirdo Dove to die. 

“Calm down. If you keep your cool, everything should be fine,” Hiroto said, causing Cheza to pause in her pacing, one foot stuck out an inch off the floor in front of her. She stayed frozen like that as she stared and quirked an eyebrow at him, now baffled at the sly smile slowly spreading across his features. He rarely showed this kind of expression, it was quite shocking really. 

Her eyes then widened as he chuckled. “What is it?” she asked him.

Hiroto maintained a smile as he answered. “Oh, it’s nothing. The look on your face just now was funny.”

Cheza cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. “The smile you had was just out of the ordinary is all. What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that you being this nervous about the Dove visiting our home is unnecessary. We’ve hidden what we needed to in a safe place and we stuffed the fridge with human food and the pantries also. I admit that I’m still quite peeved that you didn’t tell me about your Dove customer and then allowed him to come over out of the blue…” he shook his head and sighed. “But Suzuya coming here and seeing a normal human-like household should probably ease any suspicions that he may have or possibly develop about us. I think the time you spend with him today will be beneficial to us. Besides, it’s good to keep your enemies close.”

“True,” Cheza responded, then immediately frowned. “Wait…do you think he’s suspicious of us?”

Hiroto gave her a stern look. “Honestly, I’m not entirely sure that he is. However, he gave off a vibe I didn’t like at your art show that is not solely due to him being an Investigator. Suzuya is more cunning than he appears and I do believe that he is up to something. If he and his squad are investigating the kills we have done over the years as you informed me last night, then it’s safe to assume that somehow he has become suspicious of you, and in turn, us.”

“To be honest, I felt that something was different about him yesterday and the thought of him suspecting me of being a ghoul did cross my mind once. It’s kind of hard to tell though because he does and says odd things sometimes.”

“Well, he sure does seem to be an eccentric fellow.” Hiroto then took a sip of his coffee, becoming lost in thought.

Cheza caught the sweet scent before the knock on the door. “He’s here,” she stated and Hiroto gave her a nod.

Cheza inhaled deeply, then slowly exhaled to calm her hammering heart and shaking hands. Uh…I hate being so nervous. She then opened the door to see the grinning Dove clad in his usual almost all black attire. “Good morning Cheza!”

“Good morning,” she replied sweetly with a smile and stepped aside to allow him into their apartment. 

“Hmm…nice place. Show me around your kitchen!” Juuzou surveyed the living room, then a bit over enthusiastically, pointed towards the kitchen area.

“Um, sure,” Cheza responded. She then made her way ahead of Juuzou to lead him there, but before he followed after her, he glanced at Hiroto on the couch with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“Morning Hiroto,” Juuzou said, his tone losing the friendliness that it had had when he greeted Cheza. Grey eyes stared coldly back at crimson ones. “Morning Investigator Suzuya,” Hiroto answered, bringing his coffee cup to his lips. He watched as the Dove gave him an impish smile before entering through the open doorway of the kitchen. The bastard seems to be challenging me for some reason, Hiroto thought as he sipped the last of the dark, strong liquid in his cup.

Once in the kitchen, Juuzou immediately opened the fridge. He frowned when he saw it packed with food and drinks, causing Cheza to raise an eyebrow. So he might have been a bit suspicious after all. 

She walked to the pantry above the counter, opened its doors, and pulled out the cake mix. Before she could close the doors, Juuzou was peering at the shelves over her shoulder, standing on his tip toes. His hands were planted onto her shoulder blades and his body slightly pressed against her back as he leaned in for a better look at the contents. Cheza stiffened, eyes widening in surprise. She felt heat spread across her cheeks almost as warm as the human pressed up against her. His sweet scent was also overwhelming, causing her heart to flutter. 

“You seem to have some good stuff,” Juuzou simply stated. He then reached out his hand towards the shelf and she knew what he was trying to get. Cheza got the bag of candy for him and handed it to him over her shoulder. “Here, this was what you wanted right?”

“Yup.” Juuzou happily accepted the bag from her. He then made a motion to lean back away from her, but before he could, they were spotted.

“What am I looking at exactly?” Naoto asked. He was standing in the doorway of the kitchen still wearing pajamas; his head tilted to the side, eyebrows raised, trying to suppress an amused grin. 

“He wanted a bag of candy and couldn’t wait,” Cheza responded, embarrassment shading her cheeks a darker tint of pink. 

“Aren’t you making him a cake today though?” 

“Well, yeah…”

“I’m just having a snack while I wait for the meal,” Juuzou interjected. He was now standing next to Cheza instead of leaning against her. His hand was already in the candy bag, fishing out a certain flavor.

“You eat cake as a meal!?” Naoto laughed, half concealing his mouth with his hand.

Juuzou cocked his head to the side, staring at Naoto’s outburst. “Why is that funny?”

“Cake is something you eat for a dessert right?” Naoto stifled his giggles. “And people usually only eat a piece or two, not a whole one to themselves.”

Juuzou smiled as he unwrapped a piece of candy. “Whatever gives the body fuel the best. It shouldn’t matter what it is.” He then popped the candy into his mouth and watched the grin slowly disappear from Naoto’s face. 

“Sure, I guess you’re right.” Naoto averted his gaze from the crimson-eyed Dove and proceeded straight to the coffee maker. 

Cheza felt her blood run cold as Juuzou’s words echoed in her mind. “Whatever gives the body fuel the best. It shouldn’t matter what it is.” Why did he word his answer in that kind of way?

“Now, you should get started with my cake,” Juuzou stated, eyeing the cake mix box in her hand. 

“Yes, of course,” Cheza answered, giving him the brightest smile she could muster. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. His response to Naoto had been unsettling. 

Cheza stirred the cake mix in a large bowl after she had added the eggs and milk while Naoto and Juuzou watched; Naoto sipping coffee quietly and Juuzou popping candies. After she was done, she got a bump pan out and prepared to pour the batter into it. 

After a while of complete silence, Juuzou chose this moment to speak to her. “So Cheza, I’m curious. What are your parents like?”

Cheza paused, holding the bowl above the pan. A deep ache filled her chest as her hands started to tremble. “They…they were very kind and generous people. Mom made art with my brother Riku and I. Dad loved watching anime and playing games with us.”

“They were? Why past tense? Did they die?” His voice didn’t sound at all sympathetic.

Hearing the casual tone in his voice made anger burn in her throat. However, she kept it down. “They were murdered by a ghoul when I was ten years old.” Her eyes were now hot; her vision blurring as they filled with tears. The hollowing ache in her heart grew more painful as flashes of her family’s bloodied and mutilated bodies lying on the ground took over her sight for a moment. The trembling in her hands grew worse and her mind blanked. 

When she came to, she was being steadied by Naoto and Juuzou had a hold of her hands. “I saved the bowl from spilling, but a little did get on the table and on your fingers,” Juuzou informed her, his crimson eyes locked on her face.

Cheza looked down to see that she was still holding the bowl, one of her hands gripping the side where the batter was streaked. The batter was on her fingers as Juuzou had said. She had most likely titled the bowl in her brief black out. 

Each of Juuzou’s hands were firmly gripping her own, helping her to hold the bowl up-right. They were warm against her cold skin. She felt heat creep into her cheeks. She took in a deep breath, then exhaled. “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “I don’t know why that happens to me sometimes.”

“It’s fine,” Juuzou replied, letting go of her hands. “It now makes sense to me why you reacted to Ai Mogami’s death in the way that you did.” 

“Are you okay?” Naoto asked, stepping back a little so that he could lean in to see her expression. Cheza side-eyed him. His boyish face was filled with concern. “Yeah, I’m okay,” she responded. She then gently placed the bowl on the table next to the pan so that she could clean up the minor mess she had made. However, before she could move to the sink to wash the batter off her fingers, Juuzou quickly grabbed her wrist. 

“Your parents sounded nice; my mama was only nice sometimes,” Juuzou said, his bright red eyes focused intently on her face. “She would read me stories, play with me, and dress me up, but she also tortured me and forced me to kill people.” Juuzou then paused and shifted his eyes away from her, looking off into space. “My mama was a ghoul. Almost everyone I knew as a kid were ghouls since I was raised by one. The CCG took me away from mama and now I work as an Investigator.” 

Cheza was left speechless by what he had just revealed to her. She stood still, studying his face for any sign of emotion and she noticed it. For just a sliver of a second, his face looked sad. Once the sorrow vanished, he looked at her once more. 

“I just thought I should tell you about my own parent since you told me a little about yours.” Juuzou then grinned at her and brought her hand up to his face, her fingers just an inch from his lips. “I don’t want this cake batter wasted.”

Cheza’s eyes widened as he licked the battered cake mix off each of her fingers, then stuck one in his mouth to finish the remnants. A blush spread across her cheeks as she stared at him in shock. I’m pretty sure humans aren’t supposed to eat unbaked cake mix…

“I’m pretty sure this is supposed to occur the other way around,” Naoto interposed, smirking at the two. Cheza gave him a warning glare and he stifled a laugh with his hand.

Juuzou let go of her wrist and then to Cheza’s utter disgust, he wiped away what little cake batter had dripped onto the table. He’s going to eat that too, she thought, watching him bring his finger up to his mouth. However, he paused and smiled mischievously at her. Cheza raised an eyebrow at him. “You should have a taste as well,” he stated.

Cheza frowned as her heart skipped a beat. “I don’t eat raw stuff. I’m pretty sure you will get sick from eating that.”

“It’s only a little bit. It’s harmless.” He then quickly stuck his arm out, forcing his finger passed her lips faster than she could react to his movement. 

Her eyes widened and she fought to maintain composure as the bitter and chalk-like taste of the cake mix threatened to make her barf. The horrid taste was made a little easier to bear though, because of the taste of his skin. His deliciously abnormal scent engulfed her and the saltiness of his finger that she grasped with her tongue made her mouth water. With all her will power, she fought the urge to bite down with thoughts of how sweet his blood might taste flooding her mind. The nasty cake batter helped with controlling that desire, but her heart raced as she felt a hot sensation running through her veins, into her eyes; her kakugan were going to activate.

Naoto then intervened by shoving them apart, giving each a disgusted look. “Sheesh, could you not do that in front of me. Go to Cheza’s room instead.”

“Hm, what do you mean?” Juuzou nonchalantly asked him, cocking his head to the side.

“You seriously didn’t get what I meant? Are you joking?” Naoto quirked an eyebrow at the Investigator. 

“I seriously didn’t know what you meant, but I would like to see Cheza’s room after she’s done with the cake,” Juuzou answered with a grin. 

“Seriously…” Naoto stared hard at Juuzou, confused over how the Dove didn’t understand something so simple. He then looked at Cheza, his eyes conveying a message that she understood. He had sensed what was about to happen, and rescued her from accidentally exposing them. If her kakugan had activated, they could’ve killed the Investigator. However, his death on the day he came to their apartment would’ve raised suspicion and they would have to flee elsewhere. Well that, and the fact that he doubted Cheza could kill Juuzou. He knew well that she didn’t want to take the Dove’s life. Any human that she liked, she didn’t want them to die. 

Cheza then cleaned up and put the cake in the oven to bake. While it cooked, she accepted Juuzou’s request to see her room. The walls of the room were covered in anime posters and art work. She had books and manga packed into one bookshelf. A medium sized wolf stuffed animal lied on the bed. On a desk, he noticed a 3DS and some Pokémon games. “You play Pokémon,” he stated, looking through each of the games. 

“Yeah, I played them as a kid too. I prefer the older ones, but these are nice.” Cheza stood beside him, glancing at his intrigued expression. “Do you have a favorite Pokémon? Mines Mew*.”

Juuzou looked up at her, noting the light in her lilac eyes. She seemed oddly happy about his presented interest in the games. “I don’t really play videogames, but some are fun, I guess,” he replied. He then knitted his eyebrows as he pondered over what his favorite Pokémon would be. After a moment, he answered. “I can’t really decide on one per say, but I really like Girafarig the most. I also like Haunter, Gengar, Pikachu, Scyther, Umbreon, and so on.” He paused and watched as Cheza’s lips tugged into a smile.

“I figured your fave would be Girafarig,” she said. “It’s a cute Pokémon. I like the ones you listed, but I also like Mighteyena, Absol, Lucario, Arcanine, Ninetails, Raichu, Charizard, and all of the other Eeveelutions.”

Juuzou just stood staring at her for a moment, a little transfixed. Then he smiled and stated, “yeah, those are pretty cool too, especially Lucario.”

Cheza beamed at him and without thinking, grabbed ahold of his hand. He stiffened some at her action with slightly widened eyes, but didn’t protest. He just looked curiously at her. She then directed him to sit on her bed. “I know you already saw some of my best artwork at the art show, but I want to show you some of my sketches and other works. You’ve already shown me your drawings when we were at the zoo, so it’s only fair.” 

Cheza spent the rest of the time before the cake was done, showing her sketches to Juuzou and talking about each one. He happily looked over each of them, listening to her closely. When she left to check on the cake, he went through her drawers and looked under her bed. When she left again to put icing and strawberries on the cake, he went through her closet and the rest of her room. He found nothing of suspicion. After the cake was completed and packaged, Juuzou paid her, said thank you, and left. As he rode the elevator down to the first floor, he sighed in disappointment. He didn’t manage to find any proof of Cheza and her friends being ghouls. On top of that, he had a strange new feeling gnawing at his chest. He looked at the packaged cake in his hands. It looked beautiful and delicious, made with so much care. His eyelids drooped as his head began to feel a bit foggy. The light he had seen in Cheza’s eyes; he had definitely witnessed that before, a long time ago.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cheza watched as he left and stayed standing at the door until both his footsteps and scent began to fade. She then sat by Hiroto on the couch and let out a sigh. “Everything went fine it seems,” Hiroto stated. “You are good at pretending to be human after all.”

“Yeah, hopefully this visit will alleviate any suspicions he may have had about us,” she responded. Although I don’t understand what could have caused those possible suspicions in the first place.” 

Cheza sat there for a few more minutes, pondering over possibilities when she remembered what Juuzou had told her earlier after her brief black out. “My mama was a ghoul. Almost everyone I knew as a kid were ghouls since I was raised by one. The CCG took me away from mama and now I work as an Investigator.” A sharp pain shot through her head and she winced. It wasn’t unusual to her that he was raised by a ghoul. Her mother helped raise her human brother. However, he described his ghoul mom as being abusive, forcing him to kill people. The ache in her head gradually grew as she continued to think about it. If he mainly knew ghouls as a kid and he met me once a long time ago, then that means…Cheza then cried out, gripping the hair on both sides of her head and leaned forward as an unbearable pain burst inside her skull. 

“Cheza, what’s wrong!?” Hiroto shouted, panic lacing his tone of voice. He grabbed her shoulder and leaned over to her. When she looked up at him, her eyes were moist with tears. She looked a bit out of it, unfocused. When she spoke, her voice sounded distant. “His mom was Big Madam and she hates me for what I did.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Mew is literally my favorite Pokémon. I just had to add something about Pokemon.


	10. Connections

His mom was Big Madam and she hates me for what I did. After she had voiced those words, Hiroto didn’t even bother to ask her who or what she meant exactly. He just sat there, his hand on her shoulder, gazing sternly at her. She was partly glad he didn’t ask, because she wasn’t sure what she actually meant either. She just had a vague recollection of Big Madam and of the hostility the ghoul had for her. She felt she did something to earn her wrath, but she couldn’t remember what it had been. 

“I heard your conversation with Suzuya in the kitchen,” Hiroto finally spoke, not taking his eyes off of her. “I assume you meant his ghoul parent was Big Madam right?”

“Right,” she replied and looked down at her feet. “Why do I remember that person? Me knowing her means that she is probably my connection to how I met Juuzou a long time ago.”

“I know who Big Madam is; he used to meet with her over certain business endeavors,” Hiroto said. “She could have kept the Dove as a pet for her entertainment. It’s pretty much the same with what he did with you.” 

Cheza nodded in answer, still staring at her feet. After a moment of silence between them, she spoke softly; more so to herself. “That might definitely be how I know him.”

Hiroto tilted his head to the side and reached out to gently take Cheza’s chin between his thumb and forefinger, lifting her face so that their eyes met. “Regardless of how you may have known Suzuya and despite what you may feel for him, he is our enemy and would not hesitate to kill us if he found out what we really are. You need to be careful around him. Don’t get too close to him because if it ever comes down to us or him, I will surely kill him.”

Hiroto then let go of her and stood up from the couch. He gazed down at her, noting the lost look in her eyes. She was unsure of what she should say to him. “We will need to go hunting tomorrow night. I’ll retrieve our hidden masks and cloaks after I get off from work.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was the morning after his visit to Cheza’s place. Juuzou sat in front of the computer, typing in Cheza’s full name. If she wasn’t a ghoul and her family had been killed by one instead, he should find the case of the murders somewhere in the CCG’s database. He still wasn’t fully convinced that she wasn’t a ghoul due to the strange familiarity that he felt towards her. However, if further investigation led him to believe that she was human after all, it would put an end to his suspicions of her. As he lifted his finger to press the enter key, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He glanced off to the side and saw Hanbee leaning over to get a better look at the computer screen.

“Good morning Suzuya,” Hanbee stated. “I see that you’re still investigating Cheza as a suspect. How did yesterday’s visit at her home go? I’m guessing you didn’t find anything?”

Juuzou narrowed his eyes at his subordinate before answering. “You’re right, I didn’t find any kind of evidence of her and her friends being ghouls.” He then leaned back in his seat, tilting his head to stare up at the ceiling before he continued. “To be honest, I was disappointed. I was so sure that my suspicions about her were correct. I looked everywhere in the places I could for some proof and found nothing. They had plenty of food and drinks in their kitchen. No dead body parts or blood anywhere!” He spun in his chair to face Hanbee with an annoyed expression displayed on his face. “I even found a way to possibly activate Cheza’s kakugan or make her throw up from the taste of human food by shoving my cake-batter covered finger in her mouth, but Naoto intervened with my plans and turned it into something perverted.” The annoyance on his face quickly shifted to anger after that last statement.

“You did what now!?” Hanbee shouted, his eyes wide in disbelief. Suzuya has done some outlandish things both socially and during investigations, but him doing something like that to a girl was kind of unexpected. 

“You heard me, I’m not going to repeat myself,” Juuzou flatly replied. 

“I know I heard you, I just meant that I can’t believe you did something like that.” Hanbee stared at him in shock for a moment more before letting out a sigh. “So what are you looking for in the database right now?”

“While I was there, I acquired some information about her. Her parents were killed by a ghoul, so therefore, I’m searching the database to find a case record on her parents’ death.” Juuzou turned back to the computer and pressed enter. 

“So that pretty much explains her anguish over Ai Mogami’s murder,” Hanbee said; his tone drenched in sympathy. 

Hearing Hanbee make the same conclusive statement that Juuzou had after hearing of Cheza’s loss, gave him a strange ache in his chest. Juuzou frowned and glanced at Hanbee’s now pensive face. His underling’s demeanor and the ache were bothering him; he needed a distraction.

“Hey, Hanbee,” Juuzou said, tilting his head to the side and flashing a smile.

“Yes, Suzuya?” Hanbee stood up straight, waiting for his superior’s orders.

“Make yourself useful and go fetch me some pudding.”

“Uh, yes Suzuya.” Hanbee nodded and then quickly turned to leave.

As soon as Hanbee exited the room, Juuzou shifted his focus back to the task he had started. A grin spread across his face as the information he had been looking for popped up on the screen. He started reading the text carefully, his brows knitted in concentration. As he read, his crimson eyes slowly began to widen. He couldn’t believe what he was reading. His lips parted slightly as he neared the end of the case report. He tugged on the stitching below his lower lip and then sat back to internally process what he had just read. Maybe his notions about Cheza being a ghoul weren’t warranted after all, but at the same time this case was unusually suspicious. It didn’t sit well with him. Something wasn’t right about how Cheza’s family had died. Something wasn’t right about Cheza being the only survivor. Juuzou continued to ponder over the case until he heard the door open. He turned to see Hanbee entering the room with several puddings. 

“Ah, thank you Hanbee!” Juuzou grinned and held out his hands to receive the treats. Hanbee gave the puddings to him, which he then dumped into his lap. “So I found the case record about the murder of Cheza’s family and there’s something strange about all of it.”

“What is it?” Hanbee asked as he pulled out a chair to sit next to his superior. He then leaned in to see the text on the computer screen. 

“Cheza’s mother’s name was Juri Tsukiko,” Juuzou began while picking up one of the pudding cups. “She was married to a CCG Investigator in the 20th ward. His name was Kai Shirayuki. This investigator was not Cheza’s real father; he’s her step-dad and he also had a son before his marriage to Juri named Riku.” Juuzou opened the pudding cup and gestured towards Hanbee, who then pulled out a pack of plastic spoons from his pocket and handed one to Juuzou. Always prepared; I’ve trained you well, Juuzou thought to himself as he took a bite of pudding. He swallowed the spoonful of chocolate and then continued. 

“The strange thing is that her family just disappeared one day. Her step-dad left his work without an explanation and did not return his quinque. They seemed to have packed some of their belongings and were seen several times in different wards over the next few days. However, eventually the bodies of Investigator Shirayuki and his son were found torn apart on a construction site in the 13th ward. Evidence showed that they had been attacked and half-devoured by multiple ghouls. Juri and Cheza were never found.”

“That is strange,” Hanbee replied, eyebrows raised. “It sounds as if they were trying to flee from something or someone.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking. Since they were killed by ghouls, I’m assuming that maybe it was a ghoul gang out for vengeance against Investigator Shirayuki for exterminating someone in their group. He obviously knew they were coming after him and his family because Shirayuki prepared beforehand and left. However, it’s really weird to me how he never mentioned that ghouls were targeting them specifically and that he never requested special protection for his family from the CCG. Another thing that’s strange is how Cheza managed to stay hidden for all these years and no one has found her out for being the missing step-daughter of a CCG Investigator who was murdered by ghouls under mysterious circumstances. Also, Cheza said that both her parents died. If that’s so, where was her mother’s corpse?”

Juuzou took a small break from the conversation by finishing off the pudding before he uttered one last thing that had been bothering him the most about the case. “How did Cheza survive and where exactly had she been hiding all that time?”

“That’s what I’m wondering as well,” Hanbee answered. “Also, it’s strange that she would come out of hiding to live in the same ward that her step-dad and brother died in.”

“You’re right.” Juuzou stared hard at the computer screen as he opened up another pudding cup and ate it. His brows furrowed and his eyes narrowed as he thought about some sort of explanation for the case and Cheza’s current circumstance. This case was becoming frustrating because he couldn’t figure it out. On top of this new knowledge, he had to also incorporate the fact that he was sure he had met her when they were kids. The memories were vague and tinged with growing anxiety, but he was now surer of her familiarity to him than ever before. His chest suddenly felt heavy as he traced the connections in his mind, slowly coming to a conclusion that he hadn’t thought of before. She was taken and kept as a pet…like how I was back then…

Juuzou’s eyes widened at the realization and he turned his attention to Hanbee who had noticed the particular look on his superior’s face. “Did you come up with an explanation Suzuya?” Hanbee asked. 

“Yeah, I think so.” Juuzou stood up and shoved the last pudding cup into his pocket. “Hanbee, I’m going to go over to Cheza’s place to talk to her about this case. I’ll be back later.” He then picked up the silver suitcase containing his quinque and proceeded to leave the building.


	11. Confrontations

Cheza smelled his sweet scent before she heard him knock on the door. Why’s he here all of a sudden?

She walked to the door and opened it, staring down into the crimson eyes of Juuzou Suzuya. The expression on his face was different than usual. The carefree and sometimes mischievous smile he usually displayed to her wasn’t there. He looked serious, his eyes piercing into her. 

Cheza furrowed her brows in confusion and then her gaze slowly shifted downwards when she noticed what he was carrying. A shiver ran down her spine as she laid her eyes on the familiar briefcase that Doves carried their quinques in. 

“Juuzou…wha…what is it? Why are you here?” she asked, her voice a bit shaky despite her attempts to control it.

He said nothing as he walked into the living room of the apartment and Cheza closed the door. She stood there, staring at the investigator with stitches now standing in the middle of the room. Juuzou let out a sigh before he spoke.

“Your mother’s name was Juri Tsukiko and your step-dad’s name was Kai Shirayuki. You also had a step-brother named Riku Shirayuki. Shirayuki was a CCG Investigator in the 20th ward. You and your family disappeared from there and were seen throughout different wards for the next few days before the bodies of Investigator Shirayuki and his son were found torn apart by ghouls on a construction site in this ward. The circumstances of you and your mother’s disappearance and the investigator and Riku’s deaths seem strange to me. What happened exactly?”

Cheza’s blood ran cold and her chest filled with a deep and painful ache. Her hands began to shake as she slowly processed what Juuzou had said to her. She then clenched her fists to steady them and steeled herself for what would happen next. “How did you find out about that?” she asked, her tone of voice sounding more menacing than she meant it to.

“I was just curious after you told me your parents were killed by a ghoul, so I looked some stuff up to see if the incident had been documented.” His face was unreadable and his voice was the same tone that it always was, but something was different about the way he spoke. When Cheza remained silent, he narrowed his eyes and said, “answer my question Cheza, what happened? As a ghoul Investigator, I’m curious about what happened. It’s a cold case and you and your mother are still considered missing.”

Cheza glared at him, anger rising in her chest at Juuzou’s intrusion into a past she didn’t want to think about. It was disrespectful of him to pry into what had happened to her family and her all those years ago. Does he truly suspect me of being a ghoul after all?

“How dare you investigate what happened after I confided in you about their death!” Cheza stated, clenching her fists with more force and digging her nails into her palms to hold in her anger. She was trying her best at the moment to keep herself calm. If she let the rage she felt take over, her kakugan might activate and reveal her true nature. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

Juuzou’s eyes then softened slightly as he asked her, “Were you kidnapped by a ghoul?”

Cheza relaxed some at his sudden change in demeanor and replied with a “yes.” However, she was still peeved about the situation and hesitant to say anything further.

“Then my assumption was correct. I was kidnapped too when I was little and then given to my mama,” Juuzou said, his gaze locked on her own. 

Cheza’s anger dissipated some as she stepped towards the crimson-eyed investigator. She figured that his ghoul mom had probably been abusive, but she didn’t know the full extent of their relationship and how it came to be. She felt sorry for him. Her human parent had been good to her while Juuzou’s opposite species parent obviously hadn’t been. 

“So are you going to tell me what happened or not?” Juuzou questioned her further, impatience evident in the tone of his voice. “Where is your mama and why haven’t you reported your escape to the CCG since you’re still considered a missing person?”

Cheza took a deep breath and then exhaled, quickly thinking up a slightly altered version of her story that would be close to the truth without revealing what she was. 

“My father, Investigator Shirayuki, had killed a ghoul during one of his patrols that was a part of a certain ghoul group that had been passing through the 20th ward. This group was obviously angry about it and launched increasing attacks and threats towards him and the rest of us. My dad feared for our safety if we were to stay in the 20th ward so he had us quickly pack our things and leave. However, the ghouls found us in this very ward. We tried to run, which was why my father’s and brother’s bodies were found in a construction site. We were hiding there and then dad tried to fight them off. After they were killed, my mom and I were taken prisoner. A few days later, she was killed and eaten and I became a personal pet to their leader. I was there for several years after until I escaped around two years ago with Hiroto and Naoto. They had also been human pets as well and we had worked on an escape plan for about a year before we implemented it. I haven’t reported my escape to the CCG because I’m still afraid of those ghouls. I know they’ve been searching for us and will kill us as soon as they find us. I can’t let anyone know about us and where we are because I don’t trust that the information won’t be made public in some way.”

“I see…” Juuzou started, then seemed to trail off in thought. Cheza nervously bit her lower lip as she watched him. He didn’t seem fully convinced that her story was true.

“Please…,” Cheza pleaded, “don’t tell anyone about me, I just want to keep my friends and I safe. I just want to live without worrying about them coming for us.”

Juuzou stared at her for a moment before the corners of his mouth slid up into his usual smile. “I understand, I won’t tell anyone that you’re still alive.”

Cheza could barely believe what she was hearing and sighed in relief. “Thank you.” She then returned a smile of her own and stared into his bright crimson eyes. He didn’t seem threatening at the moment, so maybe he wasn’t still suspicious of her after all.

“Did you ever come across anyone known as Big Madam when you were that ghoul’s pet?” Juuzou asked, his tone sounding sadder than usual.

Cheza froze as a sharp pain pierced her skull, then dulled into a headache. “I…don’t think so, Wh…why do you ask?” she managed to voice through gritted teeth. Big Madam is Juuzou’s ghoul mother. 

“The ghoul known as Big Madam was my mama,” Juuzou replied and then looked away from her for a bit, only to return his gaze to her form. “Did that ghoul give you scars like my mama gave me?”

“Quite a number of them,” Cheza answered. She felt a pang of sadness in her chest as she looked at him. 

Juuzou’s crimson eyes then met her lilac ones and without much thought, she closed the distance between them and gently wrapped her arms around him in a hug. 

She felt him tense up at first and almost pulled away, but then he relaxed and wrapped an arm around her waist. His body sunk closer to her, his face nuzzled into her neck. Oh yeah, I’m taller than him, she thought as she rested her cheek in his black hair.

His sweet scent hit her full force now as she closed her eyes. Her mouth watered a little, but she had no desire to kill and eat him. It was a different desire instead. He was such a warm human.

“Juuzou,” she spoke, her voice coming out soft and warm toned.

“What?” he replied.

“We’re friends right?” she asked.

“Yup! Of course we are.”

“I hope it stays that way.”

“Why do you say that?”

Cheza pulled herself a part from him just enough to look him in the eyes to answer, “Because I don’t want to lose you. You’re weird and funny. Those ghouls one day might find me and my other friends.”

“You have nothing to worry about,” Juuzou beamed at her, his voice strangely cheerful. “If they find you, I’ll just kill them for you!”

They aren’t the only thing I worry about that could ruin our friendship, she thought, sadness engulfing her. If you find out what I am, you will have to kill me as an investigator. I don’t think you’re someone who would throw away their duty like my dad did…the CCG took you in…

Cheza leaned down and planted a light kiss on Juuzou’s right cheek, making his eyes widen and a light blush appear on his pale skin. She could also feel her own blush warming her cheeks. “You’re sweet, thank you,” she said as she pulled out of their embrace.

“So, I should probably return to work now,” Juuzou stated. “I just wanted to talk to you.” He then turned to the door and opened it to leave. Before he left, he looked at her with a smile spreading across his face. “See you later!”

“See you later,” she repeated back to him with her own warm smile. 

When he closed the door behind him, Cheza let out a sigh. It felt like with each passing day, he was getting closer to truly finding out what she was. It was becoming reckless of her to keep seeing him. She might have to tell Hiroto what Juuzou found out about her. No, she would most likely need to tell him. This information was important in their eventual decision to leave the ward. The time to depart was coming. She just knew it and her heart sank at the thought.


	12. The Last Night

Hiroto smelled Juuzou Suzuya’s scent as soon as he came home. Cheza informed him what Juuzou found out about her and she could sense the immediate shift to hostility, causing her to feel guilty.

Hiroto was still pissed off when they all went hunting together later that night. He was angry with both her and with Juuzou. He hated investigators and he was angry with her for allowing herself to continue to get closer to one. They had made a life here and now she knew they would need to leave soon. 

They stayed in the shadows and alleys as they stalked potential prey. In surveying the people that were out this time of night, Cheza and Hiroto decided to follow after one specific human that she remembered seeing around town as part of a local gang. No one would miss him.

They spent about ten minutes tracking him until, to her surprise, he stopped at the construction site where her family had been killed years ago.

Cheza hesitated and a deep ache filled her chest. She watched as the man approached two more men at the site. They seemed to be in the middle of some kind of exchange. 

The three ghouls continued to watch silently in the shadows, assessing the situation in which they would have to kill three humans now instead of one. One human corpse would be easy to dismember and take back, but more was always a challenge. They had made a mistake a while back in killing the ones they did outside the club. It was that specific kill that really set Suzuya’s squad on tracking them down. 

“Should we kill all three or wait until they depart and pick off one?” Naoto whispered, standing close next to Cheza. 

“We should probably stick to one, so we’ll wait,” Hiroto whispered back, glancing down at the younger ghoul. Naoto was always the impatient one when hunting. 

Within a few minutes, one of the men walked to a parked car nearby, opened the trunk, and drug out something. Upon further inspection, it seemed to be a child.

The man drug the kid to the other two and placed her in front of the one they’d been following. The kid had tape over her mouth and her wrists were bound together. The man reached out a hand to stroke the girl’s long hair and anger consumed Cheza. She now knew what was going on and she wasn’t going to just wait and allow it to happen. 

In mere seconds, Cheza plunged her rinkaku kagune into the back of the man they had been planning to kill and eat. The shimmering purple and pink multi-colored tentacle busted through his chest and blood sprayed onto the kid and two men. 

“It’s a ghoul!” she heard one of the men shout before she quickly plunged her kagune through the chests of both remaining men. They dropped to the ground with a thud as she retracted her rinkaku tentacles from their bodies.

She absorbed her kagune back into herself and looked down to see the kid’s eyes widened in terror, tears streaming down her face. 

Cheza dropped to her knees in front of the kid, a pang of sadness consuming her. In her anger, she had traumatized this child the way she had been years ago. “I’m sorry, little one,” she spoke in a soft and gentle voice.

Her apology did not stop the child’s crying or trembling. 

Cheza reached out a hand and slowly and as gently as she could, removed the tape from the girl’s mouth. The child didn’t utter a sound. She was still frozen, wide blue eyes locked on Cheza.

“This is a terrible mistake you just made,” Hiroto stated from behind her. “What the hell were you thinking? This mess will be difficult to clean up.” His tone was laced with anger, which made the trembling girl finally back away some from Cheza.

“I know, that’s why we’ll be leaving this ward tonight,” Cheza answered. “It’s time.”

Juuzou’s grinning face then appeared in her mind and she frowned. She would probably never see him again.

Cheza slowly lifted a hand while she watched the girl who had frozen in place again. She took off her mask despite Hiroto’s immediate protest.

She then concentrated on slowing her breathing to calm herself and deactivate her kakugan. The child’s blue eyes were now focused on lilac ones and the girl tentatively stepped towards Cheza.

“You…you’re…a mon…monster… are…aren’t you?” the kid struggled to ask, still shaking in fear.

“Yes, I am,” Cheza replied. “But I’m nothing like the monsters that kidnapped you.” Cheza shifted her gaze to the dead men around them. 

When she looked back at the girl, the child had moved slightly closer to her. “I’m just going to cut the restraints off your hands now. I promise I won’t hurt you.” 

Cheza used her nails to slash the rope off of the girl’s bound wrists and the child flinched at the action, but then moved her hands around once they were free. 

“I’m going to make sure you get home now,” Cheza informed the girl in a soft voice, trying not to scare her any further.

“And how will you do that?” Hiroto asked, narrowing his gaze at Cheza.

Cheza looked up at him. She could tell he was highly frustrated with her and he was not going to like her answer.

“I’m going to take her to a police station and leave her at the front door.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cheza arrived at the police station carrying the child in her arms. She had left Hiroto and Naoto behind at the construction site to gather the meat and try to clean up some.

The doors had cameras up above that were filming her. She had her mask back on so she had no need to worry about them at the moment. She placed the girl down in front of the doors and said “just go in and ask for help. I’m so sorry for everything, goodbye.” 

Cheza then left as fast she could back to the construction site. She would need to help them clean up her mess before they retrieved the rest of their stuff from the apartment. Afterwards, they would leave this area. 

The ache in her chest returned as she drew closer to the site. It had apparently become an area of misfortune that was left abandoned following the murder of her family. The memory of that day was still painfully fresh in her mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hide here with Riku,” Cheza’s father instructed them. Cheza and Riku crouched together inside the half constructed building of a construction site. The ghouls from her mom’s past had finally managed to track them down and corner them. Her mother told her father to take her and her brother and run while she held them off. Was she okay?

Her dad left them while drawing out his quinque. Cheza watched through a small crack as he walked out into the open and took a stance against the ghouls now surrounding him.

The leader of the ghouls walked out to stand in front of her dad, one arm behind his back. The smell of ghoul blood was in the air, her mother’s scent. Cheza’s heart raced and her body tensed up as she looked at him. He was tall and had long black hair drawn up into a ponytail with dark soulless eyes gazing down at her father. A grin spread across his pale face as he slowly lifted up the arm he had tucked behind his back.

Cheza looked on in horror as the lead ghoul lifted up her mother’s severed head. Her lilac gaze widened and blurred with tears as a deep ache consumed her chest. 

Cheza’s father screamed out and attacked the lead ghoul. His effort was blocked by a massive black and green kagune. The other ghouls then swarmed and her father was quickly overwhelmed.

“Cheza! What’s happening!?” Riku asked her as they heard the dying screams of their dad. He tugged on the sleeve of her shirt and she could hear his sniffles as he began to cry. 

Cheza was frozen in place as the lead ghoul started approaching their hiding place. 

“I know you’re there, young ones,” a sinister voice called out to them. 

The smell of her dad’s blood hit her full force as the ghoul neared their hiding place. Riku’s grip on her sleeve tightened and his whimpering reverberated in her ear. He was being too loud. 

“There you are,” she heard the ghoul’s voice just a few feet away from them now, filling her mind with panic. A fist of fear clenched around her heart as she slowly stood up despite her body tensing and straining as she did so.

“Riku…run..,” she managed to whisper to him before abruptly launching herself out of their hiding place and slamming her body in full force against the ghoul. 

The ghoul only staggered back slightly, but quickly recovered and smacked her into the ground with a fist. 

Cheza’s breath left her as she hit the ground and tried to roll away from the ghoul now looming over her.

“Cheza!” she heard Riku shout as she struggled to her knees and tried to catch her breath.

“I…I told..you..to…run!” Cheza gasped.

It was too late. Cheza watched helplessly as the ghoul’s tentacles extended in front of her vision, impaling her brother as he tried to run away. In a split second, he was now gone like their parents and Cheza was alone. A numbness then washed over her and she no longer felt any fear or pain. 

Cheza stood up and turned to face the ghoul, her numbness being replaced by something searing inside of her as she stared at the terrifying ghoul looming over her. 

Her stare formed into a glare and heat surged through her lower and upper back areas. Her jaw clenched as she dug her nails into the palms of her hands. The ghoul’s tentacles then rose to strike her and time seemed to slow down in her vision. As he brought his kagune down on to her, she was surprised to feel her own two rinkaku tentacles explode from her back to block his. It didn’t end there though because small wings also burst from her upper back, releasing a volley of kagune spikes.

Despite her efforts, the ghoul managed to block her kagune spikes with two more tentacles and knocked her into the ground. He didn’t deliver a killing blow though. He instead walked up to her as she struggled to lift herself back up.

“Interesting, inheriting chimera kagune is rare. I think you’ll be useful,” the ghoul said, looking down at her with a sinister smile spreading across his pale face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as Cheza arrived, she helped Hiroto and Naoto finish packing up the meat and burying the remaining body parts of the dead men. The splattered blood on the ground was difficult to cover up though. She just hoped no one came around this area to notice the mess anytime soon. 

“What do we do about the car?” Naoto asked, gesturing to the parked vehicle the little girl had been taken out from earlier. 

“Just leave it there, it’s better if we don’t leave our prints on it if it’s found,” Hiroto replied. “Now we should get going, we’ve been here for a few hours now and I don’t want to run out of the cover of darkness as we leave.”

Cheza’s heart sunk as she watched Hiroto pick up the bags of meat and sling them over his shoulder to carry. 

I’m not going to be able to see Juuzou again, she thought to herself, looking up at the night sky. The moon was full and bright, shining a light directly on their little pack. It has come down to choosing my family over my new friend. I knew this would happen eventually. I guess I was just hoping for a little more time. 

Cheza couldn’t help but to admire the moonlight for a little longer, basking in the glow. She closed her eyes to allow images of the time her and her old family had laid under the stars, basking in similar moonlight to engross her mind. Those days had been serene and peaceful. The different scents in the night air were always more detectable when she relaxed like this. Tonight though, she still smelled the blood that stained the ground from the men she had slain. Such a disappointment, the blood scent didn’t make her hungry. She was too disgusted by these particular human creatures.

However, a familiar sweet scent began to drift below her nose, making her mouth water…

Cheza’s eyes immediately shot back open and her heart pounded in her chest as the scent registered in her mind. 

By the time she turned around towards the source of the scent, two quinque knives pierced her left shoulder.

Hiroto and Naoto both ran to her side while she was frozen in place, her lilac eyes locked on the CCG’s Suzuya squad.

“Bringing the little girl to the station was a foolish mistake,” Juuzou stated with a mischievous grin, twirling two more knives in his hands. “Staying in the place you found her for so long was an even bigger mistake. Why would a ghoul mess up this badly unless you wanted to get caught?”

Cheza barely felt the pain from the knives in her shoulder as she ripped one out and hurled it at the investigator with stitches and gleaming red eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry this chapter was kind of crappy, but I was typing it up in between school work, work, and internship. Progress on this fic will continue to be slow due to being busy. I know the Tokyo Ghoul love has quieted down since the manga finished, but I still very much love the story and miss it a lot.


End file.
